Why Mika Brzezinski Is Wrong About Work Culture, What Exactly Needs To Change

When will we start punishing actual bad behavior, proportionally punishing at that, instead of just blatantly generation bashing, particularly millennials, and the positives they’ve brought to the workforce?

While dissecting candidate Roy Moore’s bid and probable win for senate in Alabama despite accusations from 9 women alleging harassment, groping, forceful kissing, attempted rape and what can only be described as pedophilia, his too narrow loss to Doug Jones for some people, including their comfort Mika Brzezinski sounded off about him. Appearing equally and justifiably rattled by revelations bought out via #metoo especially those effecting NBC directly after exposures of both Mark Halperin and Matt Lauer’s harassment escapades in the workplace, allegations against sister network CBS morning show host Charlie Rose she asserted her thoughts on the need for changing work culture to avoid the situations making me too harassment, abuse, rape, possible. And rightly so, it does no good to simply out bad men endlessly sans monumental shifts in how we do things making work, a place we all have to be, safe for everyone including long neglected women. Problem, Mika Brzezinski’s perceptions and doled out prescriptions are the female version of her male age counterpart’s viewpoints, who are consistently causing all the sexually disgusting behavior in workplaces nationwide. Apart from one sentence about the enabling management who facilitated things done by Harvey Weinstein issuing behavior passes and creating a supposed to be professional work environment where such varying degrees of harassment were permitted, promoting men blatantly guilty of such behaviors, giving them virtually endless power to continue harming women, her Morning Joe segment-long commentary, easily turned diatribe, spent most of its time indicting women for their behavior in the workplace, for taking the Sheryl Sandberg advice to lean in, actually going where meetings are, out for those obligatory drinks. Questioning Charlie Rose accusers’ accounts of harassment, indecent exposure taking place at his home, wondering what said assistants were doing there, sleeping at his home then jokingly implying discrimination mockingly asking what about all the wonderful male associate producers who didn’t get the same opportunity because maybe Charlie Rose wanted a women, finally landing with a thud admitting she didn’t know the story. Abundantly clear also, she’s never heard of, or better yet understood, the position known as personal assistant, watched the movies Two Weeks’ Notice or The Devil Wears Prada cinematically adapted from the book partially derived from the author and other fashion industry worker’s experiences; joining a long line of movies about bad bosses Nine to Five and Working Girl to Swimming with Sharks and Office Space, encompassing one with an adjacent title Horrible Bosses spawning a sequel to those who dealt directly with blatant sexual harassment, abuse in the workplace— think Disclosure. For a second time questioning why everyone was going out for drinks, everyone’s drunk, sloshed, having to clarify her distinction to the day’s co-panelist Katty Kay between dinners and coffee engagements where business is done and the introduction of, implied nonstop, alcohol; “these are not scenarios for the best behavior in all of us to come out… this stuff has to stop from the top down we can’t have that enable this behavior,” when Kay brought up how much men do business over those drinks and women thus excluded from the process. One of the glaring criticisms of Sheryl Sandberg made by Indie Music’s author and other well-known entities reviewing her book Lean In, guesting her on their programs wasn’t just how much women couldn’t carve away the time to be more career engaged juggling home and family duties, housework, cooking and child rearing, caring for aging parents, his or hers, extended relatives, but how many deals are done out for drinks where a woman may not feel comfortable less for the potential harassment factor instead worried what the boss’ wife might think, legitimate thought she might conclude he’s having an affair with you, concerned the optics give off impressions you slept your way to the top rather than earning it. Megyn Kelly when she was still at Fox New held a panel debate talking about that continuing to dissect the book detailing where exactly many deals are made; compartmentalizing the out for drinks conundrum women face, it’s the deals sealed on the golf course where women just don’t go, an activity women just don’t participate in, participate in in the same way. Chief issue at play regarding president Trump’s golf habits setting aside the hypocrisy associated with criticism of former president Barack Obama’s golfing only to surpass it by leaps and bounds, the vast amounts of taxpayer dollars spent in green fees, golf cart rentals for his secret service detail charged with protecting him, especially counting those costs atop his trips to Mar-a-Lago billed to taxpayers in the millions; too we all remember him hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his golf resort, evolving strange situation raised there giving the prime minister a briefing on an open patio or the guy posting selfies on Facebook bragging he was holding the nuclear football, the United States secret service running out of money reaching salary and overtime caps for the year after merely 7 months in, partly due to Trump’s frequent travel and what must go into it thanks to his status. Is, who’s garnering access to the president during these outings, what congressmen, lobbyists, CEOs and other entities are petitioning him to contemplate X policy, Y bill, the national security implications of both. Tied directly to the workplace debate, but the permanent female Morning Joe co-host isn’t talking about disbanding the practice, because it’s exclusionary to women, hampers women’s advancement in the employment market she’s chosen, also frankly applicable anyone who doesn’t drink or play golf, she stops at management men shouldn’t ask and women shouldn’t go; again putting the onus disproportionately on women to decline automatically assumed dubious business invitations heavily implying they’re doing something wrong trying to propel their career forward in an established acceptable venue for males. On an endcap for a previous segment in addition to her drinks comments she was flayed for on social media, joining Eugene Robinson in extoling the virtues of glass offices (to avoid attacks, harassment, unwanted physical touching), posited leaving a door open when conducting one on one meetings, particularly with underlings. That’s when she wasn’t bashing millennial co-workers for having sex in, you can hear the interjected phase left unsaid, ‘newfangled sleep pods;’ openly questioning the prudence of installing a bar in the office, utterly appalled and showing naked contempt for the, evidence spread before her, devolving of workplace standards courtesy of said millennials and all the workplace perks her generation up to present day didn’t get and therefore millennials shouldn’t be getting either, and oh look what its done. Essentially calling out co-workers for engaging in consensual romantic relationships with people they work with; in the next installment discussing Matt Lauer’s public apology statement challenging consensual sex isn’t funny moving past it isn’t funny to, if it’s happening on a widespread level and everyone knows about it maybe it shouldn’t be going on at work, how it potentially opens the door up to more bad behavior, enabling more bad behavior. Seeming to confuse and conflate why exactly Matt Lauer had been justifiably, unceremoniously booted from the Today Show, removed entirely from the question is consensual sex funny and should consensual sex be funny in the office; hey, most think they’d rather find guys laughing about a consensual encounter than about rape, about scenes where the girl was unconscious, falling down drunk, or multiple guys had taken turns on a woman, trips to a strip club, paying for sex. Missing, it wasn’t serial cheating on his wife with every willing person in the office and anything that walks, as deplorable as that sounds to most people, not souring those relationships and making the show dysfunctional with personal drama he alone instigated, not consensual sex with levelly ranked co-workers against their code of conduct, truly consensual sex with a subordinate violating their rules, but pure harassment, unwanted sexual innuendo, comments, texts, sex toy Christmas gifts given to wholly uninterested people. Female workers suddenly subjected to indecent exposure when summoned to his office only for him to randomly drop his pants, an instance where a woman expediently found herself with her pants halfway down on the floor and being hauled off to a nurse, the technically consensual relationship between him and an assistant, but one where the boss, subordinate, he holds my career in his hands factor renders it the apex of not ok. Post Al Franken’s resignation warning #metoo advocates about employers now unwilling to hire women, unwilling to take them on business trips; women backing up her cautious statements saying if the business climate had been like it is currently when they started out they never would have been taken anywhere for professional functions and wouldn’t be where they are. Congratulations employers, companies if you do this you will be sued for discrimination and the complainants will undoubtedly win, but it points to the singular thing Brzezinski and varying segment panelists all agree on yet where she is extraordinarily light on details, except when discussing Al Franken, the need for due process. While she emphatically states Franken’s case should have been in the hands of congressional ethics committee members and the escalating bad feeling she gets from how his resignation came about, tries and fails miserably to distinguish between the types of #metoo stories coming to light, vast differences between Roy Moore’s pedophilia and Harvey Weinstein’s rape/attempted rape allegations, the network of people, as Rose McGowan pointed out to Nightline, literally set up in every country he’d ever been to funnel him girls, aid and abet his relentless raping of women. And Al Franken’s supposed grabby hands to Glenn Thrush’s behavior earing him a suspension yet maintaining his Job, Louis C.K.’s exhibitionism to Kevin Spacey’s predation, to Matt Lauer’s overarching abuse of power, she’s at a loss of how to do that. Making her so much white noise in a cacophony of voices; perplexing why she isn’t advising companies to use the legal system as a guidepost, starting with behavior expectations given to employees upon hire, barring interoffice romances, drinking at out of office, offsite functions if you feel you must do so; some actions based on what kind of business you run, detailed in part 1 Envy Spa and necessity to call the police, extrapolating from the proposed bill revoking the license of massage therapists garnering credible complaints and exhibiting a pattern that spells predator. Draw up a list of absolutely no go behaviors related to sexual harassment that will result in immediate firing upon confirmation, those that will result in suspension, transfer of you the accused not the victim with a lone last chance to change your behavior, a red flag warning to your new department to watch for X, Y, Z and if there is another substantial complaint, your fired. You’re a woman and plainly lost track of what century you’re in, being inappropriate at work (and no we’re not talking the assumed cocktail number co-workers in their heads are saying ‘you think that is appropriate for work at a bank’), trying to seduce, sleep with the boss, make sexually charged comments to everyone, especially management; the 2000 teens are the era of equality baby, bye, bye, you’re fired, why do people holding discussions make it so complicated? Conveniently forgotten somewhere in her soapbox rants and muddled confusion about exactly what process should be used going forward, is the fates of Matt Lauer and Mark Halperin, Louis C.K. among many we’ve heard about, were sealed when they admitted, at least in part, to their actions. Lauer when confronted with the initial woman’s formal complaint didn’t brush it off as he had the magazine articles compiling story evidence against him, contrastingly admitted to select sections of her accusations. Mark Halperin admitted to and apologized for some things, calling himself part of the problem; how she could disconnect the two when she talked about conversations she’d had with both Halperin and his accusers saying she believed the women as well as discussing his admission, is beyond the tatters of commonsense felt barely left remaining in society. To be clear, no man or woman should lose their career, their livelihood, means of financial income because someone leveled an accusation, but remember both are in a career 99% dependent on reputation; so follows, Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey are losing their careers not exclusively thanks to what has been proven absent a Weinstein confession to the public, outcomes that would have happened absent audiotape of him admitting what he had done to one of his 70 odd victims, because they both represent a huge liability to anyone even thinking of employing them when calculating the dozens of people on a movie set, the spotlighted nature of their careers. Identical fates of Bill Cosby and Stephen Collins (one more who admitted his wrongdoing) no one questioned or complained about, apart from the damage to their childhood, because it was perceived just due to what precisely they had been accused of, how pervasive and long lasting it had been in the Cosby instance; coinciding with their professional imagines as wholesome, family entertainers, another factor in their resulting completely vaporized, greatly diminished careers, their shows pulled from syndicated airing. Providing some perspective, Cosby is still doing stand-up to receptive audiences though shrunken, Collins was well past his 7th Heaven days experiencing a lull in his once bustling career indicative of the fickle winds of Hollywood before a meager hint had been dropped regarding him and a teen girl; translation, if he has managed his significant wealth well, arguably losing more in the contentious divorce from his wife (how the allegations were made public through a secretly recorded counseling session where he disclosed why he was in counseling and what he had done, than public fallout), he won’t end up penniless. Louis CK bought back or recaptured the creative rights to his, about to be begun stand-up series when allegations broke, meaning we may still see it and he will be able to earn money from it. Along the same lines, shady as it was, Al Franken’s resignation was voluntary as was John Conyers’ and Blake Farenhold’s; bigger story surrounding the second 2 being the secret slush fund of taxpayer money/citizen donations paying out settlements to accusing women. Conyers was also well into his 80’s, had a stress related hospitalization thanks to revelations, agreeing he would likewise not seek reelection; knowledge of his past behavior and consequences rendered for his actions via his stepping down more important than protracted ethics hearings. Trent Franks had the option to too put himself before the ethics committee, stick to his questionable ‘it was a misunderstanding about surrogacy story,’ he and Farenhold presumably opted for resignation, even in disgrace, lest more disturbing details about their harassment reach the public; latter known for overindulgence in alcohol, staffers having to be on ‘red head watch,’ making sexist comments about dueling women if they were men, owning an adult website, once doing a fundraiser in a onesie before we get into what he did to the woman in his office who filed suit against him. Patrick Meehan probably happily took resignation hoping the sappy, love sick love letter confessing feelings for a much younger female staffer wouldn’t get out, of course it did. Double whammy of perspective, these noted persons are losing their jobs not their freedom though arguably Weinstein and Spacey, Bill Cosby’s trial was haphazard at best, should be facing charges, serving jail time; most of the people she’s bought up, who’ve been negatively impacted by #me to by way of standing accused are those who hold assets, can live off the money they’ve already accumulated, or if they can’t it’s poor money management, not the total annihilation of a needed movement. Further, #metoo and the unsilenced voices of American women facing sexual humiliation, degradation, harassment, innuendo and constant propositions for sex in the workplace, even assault and rape on the job, by entitled, usually white men, they work with, bosses at outside work/work functions aren’t going after the father of 3 who works at the hardware store because someone misunderstood a hug. They are going after the system that allowed persons like Steve Wynn to coerce his manicurist into sex, ratchet up his intimidation of unsuspecting women there to perform a legitimate, non-controversial job with his German shepherds taking orders in a foreign language; they are going after a system where periphery people assistants, lawyers drawing up contracts knew about Harvey Weinstein and nothing happened, legally still hasn’t. They are going after a system where cops claim they need twice the evidence prosecuting a known, powerful person; isn’t that the excuse why Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein are still walking around free, the prosecutor hearing Andrea Constand had no problem believing her but didn’t think the case would hold. And, those who read part 1 know he had precedent to believe that perusing his extortion case against Autumn Jackson; despite the number of women contacting her public defender attorney detailing similar circumstances of romances with Cosby matching Jackson’s mother, his admitting to both the affair with her mother and giving the 2 monies over several years, predictably around 18, jurors mesmerized by his star power saw him as the victim and convicted a woman for reciting the truth she was repeatedly told by her mother, resorting to extreme lengths to get her father to acknowledge her. They are going after a system where Roy Moore could use his status as D.A. to bamboozle country bumpkin local law enforcement into allowing him to continually prey on teenage girls, running, hiding, scrambling, fabricating relationships and embellishing parental reaction, to get away from his unwanted advances. And everybody else, male citizen X believes their gender designation male, their distinct male anatomy gives them license to be jerks, being that and boss means I can comment on office gossip about who’s involved with who and call deemed promiscuous women names, comment on their physique every time I see them, proposition them for sex and expect the answer to be yes, assume her answer has to be yes because she’s just a housekeeper, hotel maid, personal assistant, one of my waitresses in a bar I own/manage dependent on me for her income, skin color other than white, probably an illegal, another point of leverage I have; that Brzezinski doesn’t comprehend this on any meaningful level is mind boggling. Morning Mika as she’s been dubbed in certain circles, who went on when discussing how we handle the nuanced differences to the stories coming via #metoo and how we approach the murky waters of that behavior category least defined, sexual misconduct, over outright rape, coerced sex between boss and subordinate, to ask doesn’t a man, the accused in far less egregious situations deserve the chance to apologize, to realize they were wrong and say so, essentially be heard; being fair she said the preceding mostly pertaining to Al Franken. But, added Mark Halperin disclosing she had offered him, an opportunity to arrange for him to voice his apology to them, to said victims and they don’t want it; seemingly concurrently offended and taken aback they don’t wish to hear from him, no matter how sorry he purports to be. Now who’s living in the previous century, there is no social requirement, unwritten rule, and there never should be, saying you have to hear out, humor or forgive your groper, forced kisser, boob fondler, butt grabber, innuendo, sexual inappropriate comment spew-er. Her responses don’t just scream a betrayal of the so called ‘sisterhood’ but going after all the wrong targets, wildly contradicting herself indicting women for attending going out drinks work functions, having acceptable interoffice romances then indicting them again for being unwilling to hear out their creepy harasser, their systematic abuser, the persons who made work the last place they wanted to be. I’ve talk before about my personal experience of never being sexually harassed but in situations that made me extremely uncomfortable for entirely different reasons, clashing with a college speech teacher who misidentified my ethnicity in front of the whole class and do I say something, am I being over sensitive, the high school practical arts teacher who got in my personal space along with the elderly, grandmotherly job placement participant who weren’t trying to do anything remotely sexual, were trying to talk to me, ironically school me on my behavior, importance of a positive attitude, asking why I was afraid to have fun, everything they said lost in the desperate urge to scream back up. Another college language professor who didn’t realize while reprimanding me where he and I were standing he had me trapped between the table and the wall, his nearly 6 foot bulky frame quite intimidating to a disabled person on forearm crutches standing 5 feet on a good day, lacking sexual intention or not. Both the speech teacher, the language professor and a communications professor making their classes difficult for me to attend because of the aforementioned scenes, language professor misunderstanding what I said thinking I was mocking a student not the text, communications teacher bent on raising the standards of the night school program teasing me for the nerves generated by his, turns out overhyped expectation, for the paper we were to write. So I can imagine what it’s like mentally gearing up to go to work being sexually harassed, demeaned, degraded daily; I was in an accelerated 8 week class program, traditional students know they have 16 weeks in the room with them and unless they are part of their major course study’s department, you never have to see them again. Never mind such apologies sounding forced and hollow, a public relations stunt to get out of hot water with the public second only to going to rehab, context commentators like Brzezinski miss is 2 fold; first these women had no such light at the end of the tunnel who were lucky to be there, maybe had just started making leaving impossible no matter the environmental circumstances. Lastly these allegations date back to the 90’s when the person in question, Mark Halperin, worked at ABC meaning they’ve been sitting on it for nearly 30 years silenced by a culture who didn’t listen; is it any wonder they won’t here his ‘sorry I got caught apology’? Her whole line of commentary throwing tangible solutions out the preverbal window too focused on sleep pods and consensual behavior; if you want to stop sexual harassment, misconduct, abuse in the workplace borrowing from the referenced New Yorker article (link 14) you stop policing sex, moving beyond the article, and start policing sexual harassment, misconduct, abuse, rape and straight up predation.

Paralleling journalists covering Trump’s campaign, nomination and eventual win, to say nothing of his actual presidency, who regularly remarked they were running out of adjectives, descriptors, thesaurus equivalents for how crazy, out of the ordinary and bizarre or insane what was happening was, not for the limits of their flagging public education vocabularies but how bad things were turning out; this blog finds itself in the same boat, struggling on how exactly to characterize the wrongness of Ms. Brzezinski’s workplace behavior comments, suggestions. Using one of her own starting points, you were ‘ransacked on twitter’ after telling women not to go out for drinks after work, for after work meetings held at a bar or including drinks because you should have been. Why, there is a chasm of difference between telling women not to partake in after work, extended work, organization bonding rituals where alcohol also might be for their own safety, forgoing the opportunities their male counterparts and co-worker have access to thanks to mentioned avoidance and comparing it to expected behavior at the office Christmas party; putting forth that its not a good idea to get sloshed at the holiday party ending up dancing on a table complete with lampshade affixed to your head. So don’t do that at strategy sessions held over drinks at the local alcohol serving establishment either even if it feels informal and lulls you into believing you’re off the clock. There is a huge difference between telling women to avoid the ‘out for drinks harassment, bad behavior trap’ and saying when you go out to said obligatory meetings order a club soda, Shirley Temple, establish yourself as the person with a personal preference not to drink, at least not to drink at work, while still participating in work functions, sound advice for either gender really. Or, if feeling pressured to consume alcohol to fit in, (which is maybe something productive we should push back against, as opposed to the Brzezinski approach, considering addiction in America, the number of people in addiction recovery, working the 12 steps and that your bosses shouldn’t be pressuring you to drink to achieve company synergy, nor should they have to know your sobriety status to know why they should back off) order one drink, a beer, low alcohol content beverages or mixed drinks, a wine cooler, perhaps 2 and stop, alternate between them and non-alcoholic beverages throughout the night. Yes it is absolutely appropriate to say everyone shouldn’t be getting drunk after work at a meeting or function where story ideas are hatched for newspapers, magazines, television news reporting like what is done at Morning Joe, events are planned, strategies devised, marketing and product concepts mulled over no matter your career, profession, company, but then stick to that and leave off the other stuff. Too if we are going to charge every high school/college kid who got drunk at a party and had sex, call what happened in Steubenville rape, be incredulous the boys were only tried in juvenile court to be found delinquent, be up in arms about the light sentences given to those convicted of rape like Massachusetts basketball player David Becker even reading the victim impact statement where the girl stated she didn’t want to ruin his life merely for him to know what he did was wrong coupled with his own statement he thought her lack of response to his fondling meant it was ok. Isn’t the greater question why dunk in these scenarios always translates to sexually inappropriate; shouldn’t we equally, arguably more powerfully chastise long past grown men for taking advantage of obviously more intoxicated predominately women, but either gender? Thirdly isn’t the above the preview of sexual regret 2 co-workers get heightened levels of drunk, engage in escalated flirting until they stubble to one of their homes, end up in bed together waking up the next morning going oh (bleep) what did we do, try to navigate the awkwardness that comes next; irresponsible yes, certainly not sexual harassment, absolutely not rape? Side note, isn’t that also a standard plotline of every romantic comedy spanning roughly 20 years exemplified by Bridget Jones and its sequels; while we’re at it noting Bridget Jones isn’t a millennial, is also by the way British. Millennial a term exclusively applied to American young people between ever expanding years and was never sexually harassed, let alone at work; movie chronicling her own romantic, consensual misadventures as she dated, tried to find someone to spend her life with. Shifting gears, glass offices fell out of favor almost as fast as they became all the rage trending office design chic due to a number of honestly foreseeable factors including lack of needed privacy for business related phone calls, sensitive human resource department discussions held in stairwells then in a HR president’s car for requisite privacy, opening up the door to a whole new set of problems; another company experienced a location SNAFU when it discovered its open office, glass wall concept had positioned it’s HR department with an eye-level view of CEO office space. Distractions, constant interruptions become daily battles to try and get your work done as people feel free to constantly wander in, begin talking to you, forget if you don’t feel like talking, and think more don’t have time to talk in order to meet deadlines, being made majoritively of glass renders such offices incredibly loud regardless manufactured soundproofing especially held up beside sound proof manufactured drywall, sound according to reading worker accounts seems to be amplified be it the tic, tic, tic of typing, phone conversations or another plague mixed food smells. Transparency, privacy and job performance, what might get you fired takes on drastically new facets when you can’t eat lunch at your desk, take a personal call or shop on line during your designated lunch hour, or if you need to take a personal call from your child’s school, an emergency without looking like a bad employee. Company business conversations between bosses and a singular employee likewise become sticky, uncomfortable matters absent possible sexual harassment as demonstrated in the following quote, “Potentially embarrassing meetings must often be moved elsewhere. If a manager is meeting with an employee to ask, “‘Why do sales suck?’ or ‘Why did we lose this client?'” a glass office leaves “no place to hide,” says Mr. Lewis of OperationsInc. Lowering blinds or turning on electronic screens that make glass opaque doesn’t help: Onlookers still rush to email co-workers that somebody “is getting in trouble,” Mr. Lewis says. “They might as well be on stage.” An identical problem you confront upon leaving office doors open to curb aforementioned sexual harassment; presenting an equally odd dichotomy she would be supportive of such practices noting her reactions to print media reported Whitehouse tirades had by the president, reports he berated Jeff Sessions about his recusal from the Russia investigation in full view of others present, how emotional and visibly shaken Sessions reportedly became, rightfully labeling documented behavior shameful, elaborating on easily seen character flaws in a president to the point numerous people have asked if he suffers from either dementia or undiagnosed/untreated mental illness. Mystifying then why she wants to perpetuate that dynamic into the larger national workforce, because anyone whose worked in an office knows the Wall Street Journal depiction to be correct, has likely seen the simple act of a boss closing a door to speak with an employee signals they could be being reprimanded, fired and it becomes instant fodder for the company rumor mill, the person on the receiving end won’t be peppered with questions upon emerging is a pipedream amplified if the door is left open and they can hear parts of what’s said. Shocking is the thought that if a family-court marshal can drag a woman into an adjacent court waiting room post her routine divorce hearing on a phony drug search and assault her, even a glass office will stop a predator any more than leaving a door open would in a standard office. #metoo stories, things cataloged to have happened with Roy Moore bearing that out; you can pinch, grab a woman’s behind when the windows to your office on the backside face the street, you are floors up, passersby having no reason to crane their necks and, a standard desk obscures what your hand is doing. You can sit next to a woman at a table in a business meeting with people all around fondle a woman’s leg, thigh, hip cleverly without anyone noticing if engaged in intense conversation about say sales figures, go so far as to grab her p-word, or didn’t allegedly assaulted by Trump women, including the one detailing precisely that at a bar teach us anything? Roy Moore strategically waited until Tina Johnson was alone and walking out to aggressively grab her behind, what he did probably hidden from the outside world, rest of the building by the door, Johnson too shocked to resist, call him out; part 1 held a link of a woman’s assault at a spa where she didn’t scream because he had his hands around her neck, seeing visions of her kids and fearing for her life. Answer honestly Mika Brzezinski, you don’t think predators like Cosby, Spacy, Weinstein and Lauer can’t pick the ones who’ll be too shocked, traumatized to scream, too embarrassed, humiliated, questioning of what did indeed happen, pick such persons as would be cowed by the threat, threats to humiliate them in front of the entire office, make it appear they wanted it, were doing it to get ahead, threats to fire them from a job the perpetrator already knows they can’t afford to lose because they are the sole bread winner, their husband, child needs the health insurance, in extreme cases their very life? Going down Brzezinski’s list of workplace no-no’s, workplace frustrations, confusions she’s, harsh though it may seem, too inept to solve, indicators do suggest there are 1,001 things wrong with select 21st century office perks, viewed as meant to keep snow-flake millennials loyal to their company whether it’s offices that look like home, staycation and work-cation concepts, food buffets, arcade bars, none of them have anything to do with the things brought up by Morning Joe never mind her disparaging of liquor at work, available on company property. Except it was Donny Deutsch who talked about alcohol bars, co-panelist Mika added in coffee bars using the same dismissive, exasperated tone usually reserved for misbehaving toddlers, not that we’ve ever heard of someone’s judgement being significantly impaired, inhibitions lowered or evaporated entirely from an excess of coffee consumption. Coffee bars not liquor bars the preferred choice of cursed millennials; further the liquors available are organic and artisan types more natural housing lower alcohol content. Finally on the alcohol at work front, of the 2 companies over the past nearly a decade touting that as one of their perks, neither have reported unruly behavior in the office, like crime statistics an uptick in incidents necessitating firings, suspensions, reassignments, calls to police to restore order or, key to the topic at hand, increases in instances of sexual harassment, reports to HR, leaks from former employees similar to those coming out of the tech industry about bro culture, sexual harassment at Uber, the Google memo. That Google engineer blaming women’s lack of advancement in tech companies on their biology, hormones, inability to handle pressure and stress experienced exactly what was supposed to happen, what you would expect to happen, he was fired; he also wasn’t drunk when he wrote it then posted it and is quite possibly being misunderstood to boot. Similar to the Amazon executive who stated to someone, who turns out was lesbian and had a wife, they would love his dick, no information on what his intoxication level might have been. Namely red flags brought up by profiles of current millennial driven work environments aren’t the spoiled factor rather the blurred, non-existent lines between work and home life, obliterating of the work life balance, leisure time millennials have been eviscerated for demanding; installed perks deluding management you can just elongate work hours because employees have everything they need right here. Often missed is these perks largely apply to think tank and tech startups, ones heavily dependent on creativity that doesn’t follow in a straight line, the type of workers who do it best need these breaks, things to keep their creativity flowing fluidly; two, perks are given in lieu of wages or even later worthless equity packages meaning the food, the sleep pods, the arcade bar, extremely casual dress code, employer provided community living spaces are all they get, conveniently perhaps solving the affordable housing crisis in select cities. Other viewed outlandish, over the top extravagant perks really just falling in line with the product/service sold and qualifying as a perk under the older system; a dairy farm’s headquarters installing a milk bar for example, if the majority of workers have families, children under school age and you have the capital to build something like an onsite daycare, can mold it into architecture of an already planned new site building why not? It makes sense for long term employee retention, allows for flexibility and increased productivity when parent workers don’t have to scramble to find alternative care for a sick child, pick one up who suddenly became sick or be distractedly worried about a sick, possibly teething child, taking a few minutes to see them, assure yourself of their wellbeing and continue working. Economically beneficial it cuts down on costs for childcare of multiple children when onsite is free or far reduced in cost to offsite daycare, saves gas and helps the planet to say nothing of the morning commute when childcare is an elevator ride from your office/workspace; better than Marissa Mayer wowing business world watchers only taking 2 weeks maternity leave then banning telecommuting at Yahoo to turn right around and build a nursery for her young son onto her office resolving her child care problem, not everyone else’s suddenly opened one. Notice her chief concern about sleep pods being a tempting place for sex isn’t their existence, until she knew what they were sometimes used for, passive indication she would be tentatively ok with workers sleeping during ‘standard work hours,’ isn’t the disruption of the noise made while doing that in a supposed to be quite place where those in the next pod might be trying to truly sleep, rest, at minimum relax, disruption/distraction delivered to the main work area while fellow workers are completing tasks, the cleanliness of the pod once you’re finished for the next person who might want to use it for its intended purpose, but the fact 2 consenting adults took a few minutes to have sex, to engage in a perfectly healthy, positive benefits on the body, natural endorphin releaser, stress reducing activity, who really knows if it was during established work hours at all. Not the actual downsides of the sleep pods’ presence in the usually Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley style workplace, 36 hour work fasts, might as well be days, sleep pods set up along a wall in an open area clearly putting on display who’s admitting defeat, signaling they need a break then systematically pushing them out, just the latest technology misapplied to make workers lives hellish along with heartrate monitors and employee ID’s measuring conversation enthusiasm level, the downsides of communities like Pod Share that according to users, usually those “one trending topic away from homelessness,” (what a way to live) look an awful lot like camp complete with bunkbeds while some are calling it a solution to rising housing costs. Things deemed perks by outsiders viewed by workers as meant to keep you in the building as long as possible, cleverly distract you from the reality you have no life, agency, identity outside work; up and comings to the tech world sadly buying into hype 9-5 is for losers, to achieve the next big thing to go viral, to take off you have to hustle, hustle, hustle making it a slogan that can be sold on t-shirts, a boot camp you can attend and it even has a con (like comic-con) where you can pony up the money to be a VIP hustler learning trade tricks from successful fellow hustlers; AKA bringing the 18 hour chief exec, board member concept to the tech world branching out to new startups of rank and file workers too, The New York Times end of 2017 putting it thus, “This is sad enough for start-up founders, but rank-and-file workers are buying into this madness, too. Last year, Lyft published a blog post praising a driver who kept picking up fares even after she went into labor and was driving to the hospital to give birth. Critics saw dystopian implications — “horrifying” was how Gizmodo put it — and Lyft deleted the post. But people at the company, including the driver herself, seemed genuinely puzzled by the negative reaction.” But here’s every generation before, still living, telling anyone who’ll listen, including us millennials, we’re all lazy, allergic to work snowflakes who don’t know what it is to put in a hard day; funny enough, only thing readily found on sleep pods was a company offering them with the stipulation no sex, begging the question, why was Mika so upset? The workplace sexual harassment, misconduct, rape and assault problem wasn’t/isn’t the fact sleep pods are now a thing found in workplaces, they weren’t used by any of the headlined company personalities in their field now known for a disgusting reason. There’s to date no speculation Matt Lauer was drunk, no evidence he was, area of contention, investigation not what he was doing outside the office at an offsite function because he was intoxicated, forgot he was still at a work venue and needed to act like it; rather, the button in his office locking the door while he was sitting down, the things he was doing in his office to subordinates, the sexually charged Christmas presents, passive aggressive refusal to take female co-workers disinterest, firm no for an answer and pursuit of inappropriate relationships where he leveraged people’s careers in exchange for sex. Harvey Weinstein’s problems begin well before debating how intoxicated he might have been, Bill Cosby wasn’t himself intoxicated instead trying to intoxicate or drug his victims; mirroring Kevin Spacey who waited until his target was falling down drunk to shove his hand in his pants, alcohol not a factor from his end in his painful groping of a man at a bar adding a despicable comment about his behavior designating ownership. Neither was the problem Weinstein dared conduct business, Hollywood business mind you, in a hotel room, an unusual site also ripe for exactly what happened; it was that constituted his sole intent for doing ‘business’ in those said hotel rooms, his whole motivation for choosing somewhere not an office was to get the girl there in order to leverage her, coerce her, promise her things to get her to have sex with him, permit his fondling of her, get her to shower with him, touch him sexually, and when that didn’t work resort to force, sexually assaulting, raping them. The workplace sexual harassment, misconduct, rape and assault problem isn’t centered around 21st century work perks, those cursed sleep pods, violating a workplace norm of no drinking at work by putting in a bar, the game rooms and casual dress codes making you feel as if you are at home or anywhere but work; it isn’t the opulent office suites of casino mogul CEO’s, company founders like Steve Wynn where he had a massage table, employed a masseuse, had his manicurist come to him as opposed to going to her salon. These things were probably good for the company and more importantly the lower level people working there as the boss is less mercurial, grumpy, stressed, workers less likely to get fired if the boss is in a good mood, kept on an even keel, listed little things a small price to pay for such a large company’s function and continued employment of hundreds if not thousands, nor was it that he dared bring his pet(s) to work. Contrastingly it was that he expected more from his manicurist than the most advanced services offered; he thought because she was lower than him on the worker pecking order, less than in the business hierarchy he had the right to petition her for sex, threaten her job when she didn’t comply, pursue managers sexually with impunity. It isn’t young people newly entering the workforce, maverick millennials who have so much trouble navigating new work environments that don’t look like work, come with a bar, a nap pod or room, it’s the decidedly older people who operate in standard/traditional work environments, also prone to believing their gender or position entitles them to treat women like objects of their sexual attraction, as things rather than people, who didn’t learn what millennials were taught in kindergarten: keep your hands to yourself, more mature version your hands and your anatomy (specifically genitals) to yourself unless otherwise asked.

Interesting she so derides interoffice romances, dating, consensual sex between equal footing co-workers when Mika Brzezinski herself caused quite a stir when she began dating her co-host Joe Scarborough, the hush, hush divorce between her and her husband right beforehand, when they got engaged. Not that anyone should have had anything disparaging to say noting she did divorce her husband prior to beginning a new relationship and she and her co-host are equals in their employment so there is no impropriety, no power dynamic being exploited, no bad optics to contend with creating the appearance she got where she is via her relationship, maintains her job due to her relationship. In that respect she is ahead of Sheryl Sandberg, Arianna Huffington deemed powerhouse women writing books chronicling their success plainly marrying into multiplying money, influence, the right social circles, milking patriarchy for all it’s worth; parlaying the family business learned from daddy in the latter’s case into more opportunities then marrying even farther up, a knack for latching herself professionally onto men convincing them to take her along where they were already going in the formers, as this blog pointed out, hardly trailblazing, groundbreaking or glass ceiling shattering. Irony not lost, yes that Mika Brzezinski who did her own controversial Vanity Fair photo shoot in what everyone deemed a racy pose kicking her bare legs up in the air in a, too short for the activity, skirt next to her Morning Joe counterpart whose gaze in the shot compounded the metaphoric, obviously sexual message, as it read like he was openly leering at her, trying to see what really wasn’t left to the imagination; only to roughly a year later condemn Miley Cyrus for her twerking “raunchy, pornographic VMA performance.” Going beyond Scarborough’s kvetching the TV 14 rating was too low citing specifically her performance, saying to a Today Show hot topics panel someone at MTV should be fired after, assumed because of both her performance and the rating attached to the show knowing the content therein, remarking we shouldn’t be celebrating her careening toward a meltdown doubtlessly referencing the plights of Britney Spears, Amada Bynes, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Fundamental difference, Miley Cyrus wasn’t having a meltdown, wasn’t the public later learned, victim of her predatory manger lacing her food and drink with drugs to dope her to the gills, wasn’t experiencing a mental health crisis, onset of schizophrenia, what Bynes was diagnosed with upon entering a rehab setting, didn’t have the family dysfunction and prior family history of substance abuse/addiction present with Lohan; instead Cyrus was transitioning from child actor, squeaky clean Disney image persona to a mature, whole audience performer and too many parents where still looking for Hannah Montana though their kids when listening to, seeing her newest material rejected it as something they didn’t like. Despite Salon.com’s initial take on why Brzezinski would do such a shoot, agree to the pose, that a certain amount of sexiness, sex appeal is capital for women in our society, propels them places not reached otherwise sans sleeping with your boss, a sad commentary on our culture what they were going for, to this day, the reckoning represented by #metoo a roaring wave not to be ignored, she has expressed no regret in doing it, said nothing about it being wrong if only for her and her individual personal standards, the example she hopes to set for teens, young women viewing her program, her own daughters. In fact doubling down on, last person to be making it, criticism about female Fox News hosts being all long legs, short skirts firing back at her emotional coverage of president Trump (which to be fair is entirely warranted held up to what the president has continuously done to political and decency norms, damages to our democracy); current cherry on top of the layered hypocrisy dessert, lambasting what women shouldn’t do in the workplace. Acknowledged, there is a long tradition of workplace advice throwing up caution flags regarding the interoffice romance, an additional 1,001 reasons to avoid such romances; however, almost none of them were captured by her comments/concerns on the topic. Even Buzz 60’s statistical breakdown indicating one third of office romances ended in unemployment focused solely on the statistics only implications about the causes from the categories themselves i.e. one citing the 17% of bosses transferring one employee or the other upon hearing of a romantic relationship. Those reasons often encompassing bringing your dysfunctional relationship drama, the fight you just had at home, into the office alerting everyone to your relationship status, awkwardness ensuing after a breakup where you 2 can no longer work together coherently. Office members subjected to bouts of crying by either party, feeling compelled to take sides, juggling a bigger workload because one or both of you are distracted, less productive. Codependent and other unhealthy relationships that mean a breakup results in stalking or harassment more easily carried out because you work in the same building, can’t help but see each other, probably explain the 5% ending in litigation; or, they made the leap from office romance to married couple and it ended in divorce and that’s the type of litigation counted in their survey, details not specified. Overlooked is why interoffice romances are pretty much inevitable, perception given off at least by the permanent female Morning Joe host is it’s irresponsible employees, no shortage of young workers thinking with their hormones, men thinking with their anatomy not enough thought put into consequences; to the contrary, top on that list is their job remains the place working age adults who are employed spend their most time, working together generates a comradery and a compatibility versus those in drastically opposite types of employment who try to make a relationship work where hours and stress levels vary widely; he doesn’t understand the emotional component of 9-1-1 dispatching, EMS work as an accountant, board member. She doesn’t understand the immense stress and pressure of advertising being in lab research; doesn’t grasp the feast or famine factor in startup businesses being in reception work, established even planning, bridal sales. When you date someone you work with they immediately comprehend the stresses of doing what it is you do, immediately connect with what it’s like working for Mr. so and so, Ms. so and so, the emotional energy it can take to work the aforementioned jobs above plus more besides, understand office dysfunction, the challenges of working alongside co-worker X, fervent wishes your office would implement policy Y; whereas a non-co-worker boyfriend/girlfriend is going to be upset listening to you regularly complain about work, suggest you quit causing tension, be angry you couldn’t do something special for valentine’s day, an anniversary because you had to work, recount all the important life events she was present for when he was the center of attention feeling marginalized, disrespected when he doesn’t reciprocate. Him feeling not only personally neglected in terms of their romantic, even physical relationship, if she devotes ‘too much’ time to work, misses too many ideally mutually important events, but sensing his accomplishments somehow mean less between the 2 of you, compounded if she’s making more money as well. Working together also affords you an understanding of the person not gotten on tinder, e-harmony, match.com, cultural enclave sites like Christian mingle, it too means avoiding the bar and club scenes housing their own dangers. Drowning another popular misconception, employees usually aren’t actively using work exclusively for a dating pool, interoffice romances happen quite by accident or are the culmination of a long simmering attraction, progressing to dating; here is where consensual sex can be funny in the workplace, funny to persons working in individual workspaces without the automatic enabling of elevated bad behavior she so worries about, when a co-worker is good naturedly teased he finally got up the nerve to ask the girl in accounting out, or ‘you got Jane in accounting to go out with you’ laughs mixed with congratulations, ‘your dating Jane wow never saw that coming mixed with giggles. Mostly benign commentary had by human beings during morning greetings, lunch breaks, walking out of the office on the way home, and workers are human beings not drones, are hired to be human beings not drones in case that thought slipped your mind Mika Brzezinski; go back to those statistics the 17% of employers transferring in a relationship co-workers, 5% of interoffice romances ending in litigation versus 1 in 4 who have been or currently are in an interoffice relationship and repeat for readers we have a problem with office romances, consensual sex, chorus being I think not. Again there is an ocean of difference between consensual sex by similarly ranked employees, tastelessness of the sleep pod rendered irrelevant, and when a boss is propositioning subordinates for sex, randomly expects them to give (usually him) sex, starts relationships where the primary component is sex, trades sex for promotions, transfers, the real problem is the power dynamic; that’s what transpired at Kay Jewelers. A sweeping, night and day difference between genuine, normal comments and complements traded between co-workers, boss subordinate along the lines you look nice today, asking is that a new outfit, new hairstyle, have you been working out implying how well someone looks, noting a positive change in look and daily lacing your comments with an overtly sexual connotation/tone, only commenting on a woman’s boobs, rear, legs in those ways. A sizable difference in work atmospheres at say Fox News, where Roger Ailes turned a television network into his own private high school locker room and whose comments, touching, innuendo and persistent propositions drove one host into therapy her accounts of goings on there corroborated by said therapist, the verbal sexual harassment den NBC was judging by former host Anne Curry’s veiled comments allowing Matt Lauer to flourish while making subordinates miserable, and mutually flirtatious comments, private jokes had between 2 employees obviously interested in each other, possibly dating or wishing to but one of you hasn’t gotten up the nerve to ask. Redundancy of conflated issues rearing its ugly head, not for the first time in this article, there is a massive difference between having a relationship with a co-worker, employed in a traditional office and having sex there after hours when no one else is around, perhaps a lone guy with a cleaning cart/floor buffer and having sex in a closet where people can’t help but hear and know what you’re doing, caught in an office in flagrante; being in a millennial workspace and finding a different use for that sleep pod where people understand that sometimes happens and provided you come out of there ready to get back to work, able to continue functioning in the team atmosphere no one cares. Never once correlating the sex had in sleep pods is in direct concordance with the lifestyles we are forced to live, they are having sex there because they aren’t feasibly allowed the work/life balance being well established affords you Ms. Brzezinski; mathematically getting paid on average 20% less than our previous generation counterparts for the same job doesn’t help matters either. It’s inconceivable to people hardwired into old work paradigms millennial workers would create a business structure, a daily working structure absent the established hierarchy they are so familiar with, making whose having sex with who likewise so important, but that’s exactly what they’ve done with concepts and complexes like WeWork and its companion WeLive providing varied fee working and now living space for freelancers, startups and fledgling businesses, for millennials and anyone who wants to be part of something bigger, community a big selling point of WeLive with individual apartments, common areas and event spaces. We saw it with occupy Wall Street sans a discernable hierarchy they managed to organize, even turn out a newspaper in one area, save another city money by executing snow removal in the park space they were occupying; we see it now with survivors and other students’ response to the Parkland school shooting organizing themselves for marches, walkouts, a trip to Florida’s capitol Tallahassee intent on protesting directly to lawmakers, chartering a bus and getting people on it. Challenging the very idea work has to look like it always has, especially when how it always has is a breeding ground for sexual harassment, retaliation, degradation, humiliation, sex assault and rape. In fact there is a section of America today who believes gen X women, forget baby boomers should be thanking millennials for continual progress being made, because they refuse to accept the status quo, they refuse to chalk up sexism, sexual harassment, propositions for sex and constantly being hit on as paying your dues in whatever industry, career field you’re going into, belong to. Women who think pay secrecy is dumb and paying a woman less than a man for the same job had better be based on experience not her 2 X chromosomes, millennials who push back against not just sexist dress codes, think what congress was up in arms about (women reporters with the audacity to dress according to summer hot weather when standing outside large portions of the day, during the hottest part of the day) or previous debates about former first lady Michelle Obama’s penchant for sleeveless attire, less tank top more ball gown. But judging their ability to do a job, on am I wearing a suit, am I dressed up far enough, decrying their casual clothing; much more preoccupied with appearances than what’s in a job applicant’s head, the knowledge they bring to the job they are applying for. Worth contrasting too is age, Roger Ailes was ancient, Bill O’Reilly not far behind, Glen Thrush is 50 maybe it’s time to say to the old dinosaurs of business 3 strikes you’re out of here; Brzezinski’s own morning TV partner Joe Scarborough said he was tired of baby boomer presidents, presidential candidates who couldn’t follow the rules, convinced the rules don’t apply to them referencing both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Trump administration approaches to security and the Rob Porter situation. Millennials for all their in office beer, sleep pods for sex, community living and work spaces aren’t forced to file lawsuits, sexual harassment suits against their fellow millennial co-workers, millennial bosses; they are pushed into filing them against their old, pervy, predictably white bosses who still think we are decades in the past pertaining to workplace behavior centered around sex. That is when they are filing them at all looking at the women coming forward they are older, even when the incidents happen than younger millennials are now; though #metoo isn’t without it’s story of abused teens, even molested kids as it pertains to Hollywood, it is a decidedly mixed bag highlighting cultural shifts that had not fully taken place a decade or 2 ago meaning women just endured, something they aren’t willing to do today on the serious subject of sexual harassment at their jobs. Interestingly enough, community living space for workers Pod Share enacted a rule, want to stay here, live here, no sex; amazing is this thought we can’t have rules to govern things but must resort to outright exclusion. Hardly fair or accurately can this be so easily piled on young CEO’s given too much power, too much wealth too soon as a panelist suggested referencing surprise, surprise, her latest book Brotopia; cataloging gender and ethnicity stereotyping, bias and diversity shunning in tech. Using recent example Uber relaying one workers experience, the Uber manger’s inviting female office workers to strip club; setting aside that story doesn’t seem to be related to the blog post bringing mismanaged cases into the public eye, the mass firings and profound shake-up in management at Uber once allegations were investigated, apparently yes swaths of management did that, but how much were both dual founders, creators of Uber day to day involved with management? Further ignored is young CEO’s are so young due to they are the founders of their companies, they are the ones who took their idea for an app, a product/service and turned it into a known quantity, known brand, got it to the point of garnering venture capital, attracting, acquiring investors, to an IPO in relevant cases, not some random ‘kid’ dumped into job responsibilities they weren’t ready for, using nepotism or nefarious means. Sidelined a little too far is that there were a whole slew of people fired, there were huge shakeups in management once someone came forward and their story was investigated, found to have merit; yes in a perfect world it wouldn’t have happened and no one would ever have to report those things. But news at 11, this isn’t a perfect world; bigger story not what one man did to several women but the cover up to avoid dealing with it. Striking too is the comment on the Morning Joe YouTube video stating the woman reporting on it (the strip club ask) seemed more offended by it than the women being asked bringing up a valid point, in the light years from traditional 21st century work environment, it would truly only be inappropriate under listed conditions like the male workers did this during work hours without making up or putting in at least 8 solid hours, they asked women who made it plain in their behavior and body language, actually said they had no interest in attending whatever it was they were calling it, kept asking those who expressed their vehement disinterest in attending. Because older workers do not understand the nuance of millennial designed work environments doesn’t make them inherently bad, any more prone to sexual harassment problems than standard workplaces, in fact less so, emphatically not the end of work as we know it, the dooms day pronouncement had by bosses from the moment they set eyes on millennials entering the workforce. Sending up added red flags around how this situation came about, ageist as it will doubtlessly sound, why would they ask an older worker, someone they view as just plain old, to go to a strip club with them; they probably didn’t, and as stated things like this typically don’t happen millennial to millennial so what precisely is the real story? Continuing, why would someone older, who is disoriented by a startup company in the 21st century, newfangled workplaces going to elect to work at a millennial run company doing accounting type functions, as office work, marketing over say being a driver; again they likely wouldn’t leaving us mulling the question what’s going on here? Deeply important recognizing the problem age demographic most guilty of workplace sexual harassment according to #metoo stories emerging from several industries, does hiring a manger in their 60’s solve the top down problems at Uber, problems that happened absent typical management structures, the company hiring a well-known Harvard business school professor to put needed structures in place reporters portrayed they simply never bothered to. Travis Kalanick 41 and look what he let happen on his watch according to analytical opinion; probably not, highly likely they are headed for more of the same or a different set of harassment problems. Mark Zuckerberg, most successful millennial era companies, for all his faults, all Facebooks missteps, flack they got for offering to freeze female workers eggs at no cost until they were better career solidified, ready to use them over providing sane working hours or later announced generous family leave policies, isn’t being accused of sexual harassment, misconduct or rape, isn’t letting sexual harassment, misconduct or rape go on rampantly in his company, telling HR to ignore complaints in favor of a ‘high performer.’ Circling back on a familiar word, consent, the glaring difference between wanted and unwanted advances, comments exc. and the initial blogger talking about being propositioned on her first day; one of the reasons behind Uber’s flagging response to her claim and streams of complains connected to 1 man was a their total lack of structure, no HR department which seems to be a common occurrence even in companies the size of the ride share giant. Mika, Mika, Mika, it’s not the sleep pod, the consensual sex, the co-workers laughing about who made it to 3rd base with someone on the job last night, who finally got the guts to ask who out and look how well it went; it’s the non-consensual stuff, it’s the no matter how many times you say no, your predator, your stalker who too often is your co-worker, boss, manager will not take the hint instead escalating to merely taking what he wants, by force if threats and coercion won’t work, delights in making you miserable at your job then falls back on the you wanted it or you agreed to it line appeasing simultaneously his conscience and anyone who asks.

Telling is what her comments, advice don’t cover when it comes to workplace harassment broadening into lager societal harassment; example the woman who told CBS about an incident in the early days of women at work where she leaned over a display on a desk to do something innocuous, benign and totally professional only stand back up straight and find a male co-worker pretending to perform a sex act, other male employees joining him in laughing almost hysterically. Monster Energy employees who accuse their boss of varying kinds of harassment and degradation in the workplace including berating one employee for having children, complaining about moving meetings so she could “go home and see her kids,” spring impromptu meetings on staff calling her out for not showing up because she wasn’t aware generating increasing difficulty in doing her job; alleging retaliation upon going to HR in a pending lawsuit. A call for sane working hours across the board at every job in America so being a parent, being a mother, being primary caregiver for your children independent gender doesn’t drastically limit where you can work, how far your career can go. Constant commenting on interoffice romances, calling employees wh#res if they were mentioned in the office gossip to be in said relationships common practice at Monster, as was appearing to start or accept the advances and pursuant mutually consensual relationships only to call the woman a wh#re for doing so; treating it as some kind of entrapment, purity or character test they fail if they take the bait, respond to your advances with anything other than a no, likely to result in different negative consequences— angry texts, verbal abuse and sadistic name calling in this woman’s case, setting up a damned if you do damned if you don’t scenario. Corroborating a fellow employee’s experience to HR, at HR’s request adding insult to injury, getting another of 5 accusing women the bad end of retaliation and discrimination prompting an additional lawsuit, biggest problem there was HR’s inability, negligence in keeping her comments confidential as they should have been instead letting them get back to the accused boss taking no action, not knowing what to do when he then blatantly took out his anger on the whistleblower worker freezing her out, refusing to talk to her rendering her incapable of doing her job; a wakeup call for HR departments to be aware, fully operational and up to the tasks set before them, federal guidelines and legislation brought to bear if necessary. A female supervisor who confronted a fellow female employee for her alleged sexual encounters with various colleagues telling her how she had disgraced the company sans an ounce of research, fact finding to determine if the allegations had merit before laying into them; all the women saying essentially Monster Energy was a great place to work, Monster Energy wasn’t a problem until there was a problem to be handled underscoring the points made in the previous sentence. Noting the largely singular problem boss who did 99% of the things told by women to Huff Post and Good Morning America has since resigned, pushed out of the company by the allegations and multiple lawsuits somewhat negating company statements denying the merit to their legal claims. Drilling down into the full story with Charlie Rose, women workers, ‘female associate producers’ weren’t sleeping at his home as part of work rather showing up, coming in functioning either as PA’s or participating in a working from home, working remotely situation, growing routine for older workers in his line of work only reporting to a studio X days a week remembering Rose (76) had several jobs not just one co-anchoring the CBS morning show and PBS programing; we’ve all seen at minimum commercials for Bravo’s Flipping Out, the PA employed to take crap from the show’s home designer, TLC’s The Healer features the man with his friend who also functions as a PA. Recounting Rose’s reported inappropriate sexual behavior was/consisted of he walked exposed in front of the person as she worked, got out of the shower naked in full view of them; John Conyers accused of similar actions related to changing clothes in his office with female staff present. Which can be benign or a problem depending on circumstance, escalation, the emergence of a pattern; Conyers was also accused of other additional inappropriate things if the account is to be believed, subsequent settlement lending credence to her story, 8 initial women and 3 more telling news persons about their interactions with Rose not looking good for him on the innocence front. But to Morning Joe’s point about what these women were doing there, in his home, hung up on the fact that they worked in some capacity for his show, if he really was the sexual predator one victim described him as, are we seriously saying we think a similar scenario couldn’t have happened between Rose and his maid, housekeeper, cook persons reaching his wealth and stature are known to employ, a female personal trainer, home health worker, with select cities reviving the house call, a female doctor ? There is at least one incident cataloged by journalistic endeavors encompassing Rose in a cab touching a woman in a way she was uncomfortable with, but prior to the allegations, he believed was consensual; that touch on her leg/thigh, MO stating he would then ratchet it up to more groping or the “shower trick” as one male producer dubbed it when told what Rose had purportedly done. One victim described by news outlets talked about a lewd comment made to her while touching her inappropriately at a television event; ok what was the comment, touching her inappropriately how/ where, why ask, because from a certain perspective and with no more detail than some have given what he’s been fired for doing could be considered flirting. Yes testing them in terms of the nonverbal variation on are you interested, readers likely asking alongside the author did the woman made uncomfortable by his late night phone calls talking about his fantasies of her swimming naked voice her discomfiture, say it was wrong because she worked for him; did any of those women in cabs, at that event say stop, tell him to remove his hand, call him out on coming onto them? What if anything prevented them from doing so, is there any evidence their careers were negatively impacted because they rebuffed his advances telling him to stop, he was being unprofessional; what was his response to the one woman when touched on the leg, who moved her legs to the other side of the car seat, did he stop, did he apologize, did he get mad? Questions posed not to give Charlie Rose a pass, not to excuse his behavior but to differentiate between predation and awkward flirting he had no idea was making these women feel this way, exposing a critical point to the human condition, we aren’t mind readers any of us, if you don’t say something, do something, give indications as to what you are thinking and feeling we can’t guess; if they didn’t do any of those things how was he supposed to know it wasn’t consensual or simply flirting, he gets the message it’s a no go and basked off? It’s all fine to say it was wrong from the get go because these women were much younger, were working for him, but here’s the why question left lingering; if he’s calling you up late at night, describing fantasies about you swimming naked and you’re not into it why are you taking the call after hours, why aren’t you saying stop, because is it truthfully so bizarre for him to think we’re both consenting adults, especially if there was indeed no threat to their careers, no vibe if they didn’t put up with what he was doing, respond positively to it their very jobs were on the line? Returning to work at home, her idea of unusual workspaces, recall Russell Simmons ‘lured’ one girl he is accused of raping to his home on the pretense of doing work in his recording studio, previewing a video, routinely commonplace for artists who can afford it to have a studio built in their home, on their property allowing them to create new material, edit material absent booking limited studio time at substantial cost; important today because of revenue not coming to artists thanks to the dynamic shifts in music industry profits, music available for free, Americans who have yet to sign up for a music service putting dollars back in artists pockets, flexibility of being able to work at 3 a.m. in your pajamas, I myself talking several times about the better quality of work I churn out due to being able to set my own hours, write when the ideas come, when the flow is there as opposed to being strapped to a desk worried about needing to write and having the tools, equipment, references making that possible only at my work desk. Following notable patterns can you really say what Simmons’ accuser asserts happened couldn’t/plausibly wouldn’t have happened in a VIP studio viewing booth; especially if it was just Simmons, Ratner and the girl, studio time was booked at off/odd hours to avoid press seeing either of the music/directing heavy weights and going bananas, seeing the new artist and going bananas translating to no one else was there? California legislators besieged by stars to enact laws keeping paparazzi photographers away from their kids in the process of taking them to school, basic parent functions arguing they, the adults, not their children agreed to life in the limelight; an area subject to lawsuits from identical paparazzi photographers seeking damages after a celebrity ran over their foot with their car, not because they were unbelievably high, horribly intoxicated and behind the wheel, astoundingly bad drivers in general using their status to pass a driving test, but photogs with no regard for their own safety, traffic laws, common sense or the accidents they might cause. Part of what this then 17 year old alleges that makes her story so horrendous is when she realizes Simmons’ plans, he starts doing this to her and looks over to Ratner for help only for him to have a sadistic smile or expectant look on his face and it dawns on her they are in it together, set it up to bring here there and rape her; reiterating pillars in paragraph 2 showing harassment between bosses and employees, co-workers supposed to be doing a task isn’t where work is being done, what odd, non-traditional worksite was chosen going to intent. Assuming her account is correct, they willfully and purposefully orchestrated her being there not for the hope of seducing her, enticing her to have sex with them, but either to leverage he career against her to get sexual favors or outright forcibly rape her, not too fussed about which one. Harry Dryfus, son of famed actor Richard Dryfus, recounted, through a personal essay, an incident at Spacey’s London apartment where he was assisting his dad running lines (rehearsing) for a play Spacey was directing at the renowned Old Vic theater, again commonplace for actors to congregate at someone’s home to do this kind of work, particularly if you are in town for singularly the duration of a project, are on vacation helping out a friend. Hardly odd stars’ kids would join their parents on a gig in a foreign country even at high school or college age, on break perhaps one of the rare times they get to see their parents balancing conflicting schedules; Tom Cruz telling reporters rules on his movie sets were calls from his kids always got through. Through the reading if nothing else, have we not come to the conclusion by now what he described could have just as easily happened on the theater’s set realizing Spacey did this brazenly with others in the room, Dryfuss the father’s eyes on his script? The younger Dryfuss keeping his mouth shut for his dad’s sake, fearing punches might start flying, his own sake plainly read both as not wanting to be the cause for his dad’s career ruin, being an aspiring actor himself still thinking about working with him one day and for Spacey’s sake not wanting to get Spacey in trouble, ruin someone he likely partially idolizes, welcome to how kids, even teenagers think. That Amazon case in paragraph 2 began in a cab then progressed to a vulgar comment loudly spoken into the woman’s ear during an Amazon party; key component making that crossing the line is her already having indicated her disinterest and total disgust as well as how aggressively he went after her from the outset. However, addressing the MSNBC show’s argument, is Brzezinski now going to say sharing a cab with your boss on the way to the same place is out too, carpooling to work finito because that many people in a vehicle means touching someone might construe as sexual harassment, provide too great a temptation? Why her whole don’t go there advice, don’t do thus and such admonishments fall completely flat; no woman anywhere would be able to leave their house never mind work under her conditions. Bottom line we have to get this right, working from home, working in places besides the traditional office is not only becoming more popular it’s becoming a normal necessity; whether it’s better work life balance in raising your young family, caring for aging parents, cutting down on equal parts stress and cost of commuting to a longer distance job or just setting yourself up towards being the best worker you can be. More businesses beginning out of homes’ basements, garages and spare apartment bedrooms, taking over where a living room would be means more unconventional workplaces; and part of getting it right is reiterating a recurring theme, it isn’t where you are it’s what you are doing, consistently making those you work with feel uncomfortable, making comments that are wholly sexually objectifying and forever propositioning them for sex does not a stable work environment make, people in the 21st century will not keep working with you, will file lawsuits if your primary means of communication is harassment, sexual harassment, assault or rape. Because they are subordinate to you in the work hierarchy, because they perform low level functions such as cleaning, reception, manicurist in relation to what you do or for you doesn’t mean they owe you sex, doesn’t mean you can use your assumed knowledge of their immigration status and or dependence on their job’s income to wheedle sexual acts, sexual favors, tolerance for lewd comments out of them like a child begging for a later bedtime thinking it’s of no more significance. Other things blending with possible harassment, ill-treatment of women making workplaces, society toxic and untenable, take the newspaper exposé on Amazon’s work culture, work environment, alleged to have “conducted a little known experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers redrawing the boundaries of what is acceptable,” practiced purposeful Darwinism, calling employees athletes, anecdotes of regularly downsizing staff removing anyone who doesn’t make an impossible cut, the latter descriptions from a former executive. Public opinion siding with the online retail giant at the time concluding it was typical millennial snowflake whining from coddled kids turned coddled adults who don’t understand no one owes them a job, independent those crying at their desk were both genders, doubtlessly too spanning age ranges; compare NBC’s notes on expectations at Amazon with the New York Times article after paragraph 2, the Uber diver who continued picking up fares praised in a blog, workers and management perplexed by negative beside the Amazon employee who miscarried twins and went on a business trip one day after surgery worse given a perfunctory I’m sorry by her boss next told the work still had to get done. What current executive Jay Carney seems to gloss over is while yes 80% of U.S. companies don’t have paid maternity/paternity leave, A-how long have we been fighting for it, B- it doesn’t mean it should remain that way and finally C-tech and adjacent innovators like Amazon have always been the leaders in progressive policies for worker modeled after other westernized countries/cultures; print media reporting just 4 months after Facebook announced 4 months of paid family leave internationally, after Netflix and Microsoft did so the year before, with the exception of Netflix’s one year policy offered time off for a newborn child far below fellow westernized nations. Fellow westernized nations who would never consider giving an employee a low performance review after returning from treatment for thyroid cancer, probably canceled it altogether unless they had been fully cleared by their doctor. Lest readers think that story was a one off, bad piece written by millennial favoring journalists Amazon’s acquisition [cough] takeover of Whole Foods hasn’t gone smoothly either, new systems leaving some employees literally in tears instituted OTS inventory system spreading unhealthy, unproductive competition between workers putting everyone on a scorecard and those below 90% on their card could be fired; that it’s all related to things stocked on a shelves seems exceptionally silly. Mini exodus from the company seem to agree one southern state employee telling Business Insider quoted in Newser We’ve lost team leaders, store team leaders … and even a regional vice president. Many of them have left because they consider OTS to be absurd.” No one noticing how OTS doesn’t work well with Whole Foods or the disconnect between worker feelings and executives, that it doesn’t matter nearly as much that OTS is an old system; it goes to Amazon’s ruthless gobbling of everything within reach, strangling healthy, vital competition and making work worse while they’re at it. If you’re going to treat workers this way, you might as well take the hardly monumental step and fully automate your workplace. It doesn’t have to be sexual harassment, management overhauls, mergers to render work toxic, try another term we’re all familiar with, workplace bullying; women and minorities, women of color disproportionately targeted and devastatingly effected, women often the dominate feature in bullying at work pieces, workplace bullying overwhelmingly done by men to women, but that isn’t to rule out women bullying other women in the employment sphere either. Female on female bullying paradoxical at first, until you comprehend they are responding to male dominated work environments, the few positions at the top for women trying to make it and inherent knowledge they all won’t; another reason to perhaps, wherever we can, dissolve work hierarchies as we know them. By no means is that saying, like #metoo, it doesn’t happen to men too, men bullied by other men or bullied by women (though rarer even with growing numbers of women in every possible employment sector) it does; but women remain at sometimes a triple whammy disadvantage when confronting bullies in their workplace. Stymied equally by their ethnicity and their gender there; plus, having less opportunities should they choose to standup and fight, finding themselves out of a job, partially or entirely blacklisted from any employment exempting perhaps minimum wage if they decided to file discrimination suits eternally tied to it via a google search, like the women combatting Monster Energy. For a different perspective on how bad American work environments are check out the chef that has a radical idea: we shouldn’t be proud of chefs screaming in the kitchen specifically referring to Gordon Ramsey and Kitchen Nightmares/Hell’s Kitchen; not hard to extrapolate he would hold the same view of shows like Tabitha’s Takeover, Bar Rescue as much for the fake reality TV, scripted, exploitation factor as insulting humiliating people. Realistic about the busyness and stress of a kitchen, challenges to remain calm how he does it versus other chefs underscoring the need to revamp business beyond arcane, non-existent sexual harassment policies; his secret, a proportionate to work i.e. meals cooked, persons served kitchen space as opposed to tight, tiny areas where people aren’t merely almost tripping over each other and spilling thing but grating their nerves, enough staff to accomplish workload and minimize stress, novel thoughts every American business would do well to heed. #metoo has shown us even for adults it doesn’t have to be at work or in dubious party situations to be hazardous; not being able to go anywhere or do anything sans some sexually charged encounter is precisely what women are facing to their and America as a whole’s detriment, forget just the inability to dress nice or wear makeup on the subway for fear of being raped, watch this woman on a subway (link 15) going off on a male masturbator, the next link is a man who has been in repeated trouble with the law for the dirty habit of cutting, fondling and ejaculating on women’s hair, need we say it, without their permission, last in the trio a subway flasher told off by a woman and hauled down to the police station. How about a gym owner who misused a woman’s permission to be photographed to post pics of her buttocks online complete with disparaging commentary and emoticons; predictably he has been plagued with negative reviews and faces losing his business. Read part 1, did you click on the linked Salon article where 1 woman talks about her disposable body and all the abuse it and her eyes had been exposed to, penises she’d been shown sans ever asking, things screamed at her on top of surviving child sex abuse, later rape; connect that to the women who can’t go running without whistles, catcalls, comments one calling a black woman the N word. While you can chose to not run, run at an indoor exercise facility where everyone is attired in workout gear and houses similar minded goals, find a different gym, perchance one run by a woman, with more women, workout at home saving membership money, ban together with fellow subway riders to improved conditions, adopt more rules barring masturbating, flashing riders, put those persons on notice they will be removed and escorted to police, work is an entirely different animal. Not only should women in the latter half of the 20th century forget the first 20 years of the 21st, be allowed to work anywhere they want, reach as far as their skill and talent can take them, they economically need to work, it takes 2 parent 2 income households to raise kids, even as a couple to begin saving for retirement, prepare for a medical emergency, have the financial expert recommended emergency fund, simply getting by it mandates 2 usually full time jobs. Single, an increasingly common relationship status, not that marriage should have ever been a path, the sole, most expedient path to financial security, then you have no choice but to work, provide for yourself, which means no way to escape the gauntlet.

Then to say as a powerful woman who has reached the pinnacle, position, place in your career where you want to be directly because of the systems currently functioning as they are, that your solution is maybe it isn’t ok to do that anymore because it isn’t safe; the it being going where meetings are, sharing a cab with boss or co-worker, being present on the business trip, working, getting your foot in the door, your start as a PA, going to a typical offsite location to conduct some facet of business is a last generation, literally last century, last millennium cop put. To remotely suggest as women our best hope, our best tools to combat sexual harassment, our best course of action is to make ourselves look weak, incompetent and incapable of competing on the same playing field as a man because we are too scared to have drinks with them, promoting the concept we should forfeit the norms of human decency, the basic human dignity of privacy via glass offices, having standard office doors open so all of our co-workers can hear us getting fired or reprimanded or asked personal questions about an HR issue, to protect ourselves so we won’t be groped, fondled or raped at work in a run of the mill office space only proves you Mika Brzezinski are part of the problem. Unsurprising considering your age, that you are 50, that you are too a late stage baby boomer, overlapping early gen Xer come from the same generational stock as the male trouble makers turning our workplaces into carnage sites of a different kind. You yourself talking about the number of times you’ve had your own butt grabbed during picture sessions, either belittling Al Franken’s groping victim by implying that’s nothing or the cost of being a famous public figure, video viewers can’t tell which, your fiancé Mr. Scarborough detailing how he puts his hand around your waist to prevent photo op participants from touching you there, yet like Sheryl Sandberg before you, you haven’t, can’t seem to take your own advice and stopped such picture sessions, stopped said photo ops. At the same time utterly appalling you would say such things when equality for women goes so far beyond the gender pay gap, negotiation trap shenanigans ensnaring people like Jennifer Lawrence in self-blame for her supposedly flagging negotiation skills only to find out a few short years later, here recently, the extraordinarily bad job negotiators were doing for women in the same Hollywood industry after Kevin Spacey’s allegations prompted a reshoot of All the Money in the World. Where Michelle Williams offered up her thanksgiving break and return of her salary to aid the studio in their emergency endeavor to have the movie released on time; her team netting her a merger $80 per day, Mark Walberg’s team negotiated him a 1.5 million dollar fee for the callback; making things even more slantedly unfair and sexist, they were both represented by the same company, Williams nominated for a golden globe from that very role. Eerily similar circumstances erupting between Netflix and comedian/actress Mo’Nique paid far less than her fellow comedians of the same stature she believes, and not completely out of nowhere, it’s because of both her race and gender, part of that triple whammy mentioned in the above paragraph; thankfully she has the resources to seek legal redress and the star power to use her platform as a voice for the whole country, most women don’t. Outlining for The View movie execs., show producers years long underestimation of the black dollar how representation brings black people to theaters, arguing she could put just as many bodies in seats as the comedians she was on stage with, but was being paid far less because they didn’t use Amy Schumer’s résumé rather her ticket sales; providing a compelling comparison argument about how well black comedians/black films, look at the sales for Black Panther, do when given the opportunity. Meanwhile people commenting on reports actress Jessica Chastain refused to be paid more than supporting co-star Octavia Spencer, even negotiating better pay for her said: ‘hasn’t she always been in supporting roles versus the lead,’ yet contemplating Mo’Nique’s assessment, is it that Octavia Spencer prefers supporting roles, that’s the extent of her acting talent, her physique, mattering in Hollywood, doesn’t lend itself to enough leading, prominent roles (and why the hell not), or is it that Spencer has never been given a solid opportunity at a lead netting the kind of money Chastain and equal caliber white women automatically enjoy access to upon becoming a significant known name? Paramount in Sony’s hacking scandal revealed e-mails and Mo’Nique’s legal battle plus requested public boycott of the popular streaming service is, again it wasn’t limited to a pay disparity happening, something going on for decades traced to a bygone era few were aware of, it’s the disparaging comments made about A list actors/actresses and the ‘reasoning’ behind the known pay disparity having nothing to do with current public popularity, star status, years in the business recent movie flops, things making sense with their line of work but personality quirks, racism and misogyny. Netflix didn’t even have the ready excuses regularly used post the comment about résumés, to which her response hearing Amy Schumer’s list of sold out venues was a priceless “isn’t that her résumé,” they tried to placate her, her husband and her attorney all 3 saying she was a legend too, the theme of the comedy special in dispute. Mo’Nique, firing back, then why am I getting paid 12 million dollars less than Schumer, saying she deserved to be paid accordingly, them hedging they would have to go back and talk to the team before quoting her a new pay number hints her trek to the court of public opinion as well as a court of law. Robin Wright Penn following in Jennifer Lawrence’s footsteps demanding she be paid as much as her powerhouse co-star Kevin Spacey (obviously before his ouster from the program) making her case not only are they equals in terms of the show but, that when she petitioned them and won, her character was more popular among viewers countering both YouTube comments Robin who and “Furthermore, these pay-levels are obscene. She wan’t MORE?” [Sic.] missing the point it’s about getting paid fairly, the same for doing the same job even in the fickle Hollywood-verse, not about the overall obscenity of Hollywood pay scales. When equality for women, low level grunt employees is unattainable thanks to ridiculous pay secrecy clauses far removed from Hollywood oddities keeping all employees mouths closed so they can’t know what each other are making, compare notes and know how their employer determines pay scale; heaven help a woman who finds out she’s being paid less than her equal male co-worker or one junior to her in the company hierarchy, dares ask what’s going on or that she be paid the same, part of what got Jill Abramson so quickly thrown out of the New York Times. Heaven help a woman worker who needs her promotion’s automatic/built in pay raise more than she needs to haggle with management about what she believes she should be paid, all the time worried about negotiating herself out of a job, needs that new used car to get to work, transport her family to the doctor more than she needs to haggle with a used car salesmen and the stereotypes that come with him over asking price. God forbid a woman be able to visit a mechanic and just get her car fixed, in good operational order more than worrying about being taken by that mechanic because she’s a woman, spend more hours she doesn’t have between self-improvement, career advancement, family care and the rare occasional hot bath to de-stress learning about car parts and repair to avoid being scammed because she’s a woman. When equality surpasses family leave, the stress and extremes generated when employers don’t provide it, people resort to crowdfunding their maternity leave, women can’t go back to work between 2 income household work schedules and the cost of childcare, if they do go back to work they are less when they’re there wishing to be home with their infant child in the critical 3-6 month window of bonding especially. Knowing equality for women, minorities supersedes culture questions on diversity in industries like tech, how it feels to be the only woman, only parent, only person over 40, only African American, Asian, rectifying this less toward fulfilling a quota, keeping up appearances of something that isn’t real and goes to being hired because you were the best one for the job, had the desired innovative idea, needed work ethic or focus regardless your gender, your ethnicity, whether you look like a cookie cutter example embodying an engineer; once there recognized, celebrated and appreciated for your contribution the same way men are to say nothing of rudimentary maneuverability. Equality for women in the workplace means the freedom to get right in the thick of it at the after work meeting no matter how much liquor is flowing and demonstrate handily you can play with the big boys, put forward an alternative besides the golf course and shine, be taken on a the big business trip because you’ve proven you have something valuable to enhance what was going on, you are ready for increased knowledge and responsibility in your job, not brought as a tag along, an afterthought because they didn’t want to be accused of discrimination, they didn’t want to have to justify why you weren’t included. Being able to freely go to the after work venue, make the deals without someone questioning your presence there, without having to worry about whether the boss’ wife will think you’re trying to make a move on her husband when your interest is advancing your career just the way men do, co-workers thinking you’re trying to get ahead by coming onto the boss, offering sex for career advancement; meaning until there is evidence a woman has done or is doing so, put that stereotype back in the box of stereotypes to be buried. Freely get into a cab, carpool or have adjoining side by side hotel rooms on a business trip without, when/if something happens someone blaming you, suggesting you did something wrong because you were in the car, accepted the room assignment or whatever honestly harebrained nonsense forgetting both you sound like those guys who say, but look what she was wearing if you subscribe to such lunacy, and instances like the Duke lacrosse case, the over-age woman claiming to have been impregnated by Justin Bieber who, when reminded he was underage and she could face charges, expediently exited stage left. The convoluted story of Brian Banks, whose promising football career was derailed by a high school allegation of rape where no substantial investigation was done before he spent years in jail trying to clear his name, years on parole finally exonerated and got his chance at the NFL in 2013. Derik Rose always maintained he was being set up and who proved as much with inconsistencies in his accuser’s story via retrievable text messages about her willingness to meet up with him and the 2 friends put on trial; those caught up in the metoo movement who were ultimately cleared by thorough internal investigations done by their workplaces, Ryan Seacrest anyone? #me too stories that went nowhere less drowned out by larger caliber actors and actress’ stories, not the one victim should be enough mantra started by Dylan Farrow after so much attention has been given to names like Cosby, Spacey, Weinstein, Simmons, Ratner, media personalities Rose, Halperin, Thrush, celebrity chefs, a creator at Disney taking a leave of absence realizing he should be accounted among the metoo accused mainly because multiple women, sometimes by the dozen, have come forward with matching experiences, where she has been for years sounding the alarm about molestation by Woody Allen as a child to deaf ears, Allen’s movies have repeatedly depicted older men obsessed with, in inappropriate relationships with teenagers, his own journals revealing the same obsession. And more because there was little substance to them to begin with Star Trek actor George Takei, better known as Mr. Sulu, accused of sexual impropriety with a male model in the 80’s, both Takei and his representative say the things described simply did not occur; yet despite depicted worsening of the story and dubious comments made to Howard Stern the story has pretty much evaporated. Richard Dryfuss has a similar tale coming from a writer who alleges harassment and exposing himself; co-worker prompted to speak after he supported his son Harry’s efforts to speak out against Kevin Spacy, brought up short by the forming hypocrisy. Michael Douglas denies masturbating in front of writer Susan Braudy circa the 1980’s, Liam Neeson’s response to sexual misconduct allegations was to say in essence you’re reaching, though perhaps he shouldn’t have used the words witch hunt. Now younger people who had to google most of these individuals to know who they were along with those who have seem the ebb and flow of their careers remarking Dryfuss hasn’t had a successful movie since Mr. Holland’s Opus and that was a fall from grace, Michael Douglas these days is more associated with his battling throat cancer, where exactly he might have gotten it while doing what, and wife Catherine Zeta Jones’ opening up about her struggle to manage her bipolar type II symptoms might say that’s because they are washed up has beens no one’s heard of or heard from in years, unfair but indicative of Hollywood. Hold on, systematically compare the lack of Hollywood, public attention attuned to these actors even with an interview given by Douglas’ accuser, apart from saying this is the accusation and here is the accused’s response, to Dustin Hoffman’s swift backlash; more than John Oliver’s aggressive questioning at an event quoting from one victim’s diary maybe it was that his misconduct was towards teens, a friend of his daughter, the old adage strength in numbers, 3 women giving an interview to NBC, 5 women total relating their experience with Hoffman. To that end equality for women in the workplace means being equally listened to when they say something didn’t happen between them and a co-worker, them and a boss given the benefit of the doubt and a prompt investigation just like a man would be; there is no excuse for what the female manger did in the previous paragraph because before saying word 1 to the employee recognizing sleeping with co-workers isn’t a fire-able offence, action worthy of a lecture unless your company policy explicitly states office fraternization is grounds for termination. As to the allegations the woman was romantically involved with a supervisor she should have done her homework, hired trained investigators to ascertain what if any truth there is to any of the accusations; you cannot realistically expect readers to buy a company as large, profitable and known as Monster Energy didn’t/doesn’t have the finances to hire proper investigators. The woman’s boss doing something as simple as confirming the persons the employee was supposed to have slept with were ever in the same area together long enough to have said more than 2 words to each other, if coming from a 3rd party, which the example sounds like it was, such basics as do the people she purportedly slept with have more than a passing glance, vague idea who she is before even calling in investigative staff; if not you’ve probably been told things straight out of the office rumor mill, you’re company’s variation on the national enquirer, Star, Globe to be disregarded, if it becomes a persistent problem time to organize a staff meeting, institute new policy, not take it out on people who haven’t done anything wrong. Your horrifically ill-timed comments ring like a symphony of screechingly out of tune orchestral instruments making sounds that have people diving for cover, shoving their fingers and anything they can get in their ears to avoid the noise, when the most powerful thing a woman can do to systematically change work culture for both herself and women around her, up and coming female employees, our sisters, aunts, nieces, cousins daughters is to speak up; entirety of the reason we are only hearing about so many predators and their tactics now, Roy Moore garnered so much power and position before being brought low is a petrified fear of speaking up. The entirety of assaulters and rapists left on the streets in too many cases is a crippling fear of speaking up because of who the person is either in their life or the public eye, and like women afraid to come forward about rape and sexual assault far removed from the workplace, who won’t come forward because they don’t want their past sexual history dissected, they don’t want to be accused of wanting it because they went on 1 date or shared a drink with their rapist/assaulter. Sorry Mika Brzezinski they won’t come forward either after hearing your assessment of what’s wrong with their workplace, unfairly putting the burden on them to maneuver themselves away from the ‘unsafe’ while just trying to make sure her career gets off the ground, she can excel in her field. You could afford financially and in other ways to look at the ‘after work bar scene’ say this isn’t good and go home, perhaps because you weren’t still trying to pay off student loans, didn’t have a family, weren’t in a relationship at the time, let alone saving for a wedding, didn’t have other doors closing in your face or simply not opening up, other women aren’t as fortunate as countless millennial stories bear out on a host of fronts, never mind rewinding to when women were just getting into journalism, editing, news, TV news, #metoo stories going back almost that far. Serious question now in the modern era is once more after getting what and where you want to be are you another kind of workplace bully using, dark comedic twist, something called the bully pulpit to shame other women, fellow women out of telling their truth about the sexually wrong thing that happened to them because they went out for drinks to what was supposed to be a strategy meeting, had liquor like everyone else at the table, made sure not to be drunk and was still harassed, groped or fondled, had to tell their male co-worker, boss 15 times no they wouldn’t sleep with them, go out with them, tolerate their comments or their roving hands. Because they dared go to the studio to review a video, dared get their start working as a PA for someone who knows the right people and can help them get where they want to go, and that’s how things move in every employment circle no matter how much we cling to the illusion of a meritocracy, to be tag team raped by 2 men and it’s my fault for showing up, it’s my fault because I went to their home, it’s my fault because I work as his PA and dropped off production notes where he walks out of his bathroom naked? I shouldn’t get in a car with a male boss or coworker because I might get groped and people like you will respond ‘well why did you get in the car with him,’ so what will my HR department think, my boss think if I tell; run by men, will they say the same thing? We’ve come full circle to a recurring theme older people not millennials are the ones confused about how this works, confusing consensual and blatantly not consensual acts or behaviors, what exactly is the source of the problem and what isn’t, alcohol is not, sleep pods used for wanted, willing sex are not, dating at work is not, good natured commentary about romantic interoffice relationships is not. People who think their position entitles them to sexual favors and harassment, groping and touching of the workers they manage, the individuals they work with are; commenters like Mika Brzezinski who spends time on her show schooling women in how to pretzel themselves inside out avoiding situations that aren’t recreational trips to the bar, the club, running at odd times of night in the dark, being foolish but standard work avenues to advance their career we should suddenly in her estimation steer clear of, while men aren’t expected to lift a finger to change their behavior, adjust their perception of things to match reality that always was, are.

What can be done to curb and someday, sooner than later, eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace, you start by silencing people like Mika Brzezinski showcasing newfangled, millennial workplaces that do have perks and still don’t have widespread, pervasive harassment. For traditional workplaces, agreed hiring more women for key leadership positions where this ‘toxic masculinity’ culture never develops, agreed having competent HR departments who know how to effectively handle sexual harassment, Gretchen Carlson talked about this when her legal battle with Fox News made headlines; that HR departments really possess no idea how to do any of this remotely effectively or correctly. Have a process in place to ensure women’s safety and anonymity coming forward, but also a process by which to give the accused due process, protected rights within the company, solid investigation to determine validity of the claims against them and appropriate actions taken only according to what can be proven. Instead of what happened in the Monster Energy case where HR’s response was to confront the accused boss complete with details allowing him to know precisely who made the complaint and the things the woman complainant alleged became fodder for the office rumor mill/gossip train. Oddity of all oddities, having an HR department at all even with numerous employees; one of the things propelling the serial nature of Charlie Rose’s actions was having none. Seriously it should be part of obtaining a business license, prove you have a workable outline for an HR department that does more than hand out computer access, company e-mail set up, door passes, field ADA accommodations requests, insurance, 401k headaches, applications for maternity or family leave where applicable, but has procedures in place for dealing with employee conflict including sexual harassment. Employee numbers at or above 25 workers and it must be a clear defined department staffed with workers who specialize in handling employee conflicts and sexual harassment claims; 5-15 and up to the 20-24 workers range a designated HR person and discrete support personnel a-la receptionists, secretaries, file clerks, 1-5 workers a clear process of who to go to and actions for managers, owners, bosses receiving complaints to take including across all spectrums when to call the police, turn it over to them to investigate. You fix this by doing your level best to make sure it never starts, not using non-disclosure agreements to settle things related to sexual harassment, existing businesses ending the use of non-disclosure agreements as a means to silence women about whatever horrifying thing they went through on the job in exchange for money, absolutely do not build fines for inappropriate sexual behavior into male or female contracts a-la Harvey Weinstein; #metoo’s next move would do well in petitioning congress to end legality of contracts like the one he was under. You prevent your employees from doing what Bill O’Reilly did, paying settlements out of pocket to keep women quiet and his employer oblivious; as well as never paying out a sexual harassment settlement being an employer while still keeping the offending employee on. If there was ever a time for the use of morals clauses and otherwise asinine policies firing workers for smoking in their own home, a teacher participating in a bikini contest, nursing home worker having a rock band in his own time, policy that saw a lifeguard fired for noting a drowning man then saving his life, because he was out of his section; instead of using it for benign, stupid stuff, use it to protect not only workers from varying forms of devastating sexual abuse on the clock but your company, your brand, your business from such devastating reputation stealers. But let’s rewind all the way back to not hiring predators, promoting predators in the first place, not hiring persons with these rumored reputations sure, moreover, not hiring the guy who was seen chasing a manager around the office, assumedly with a sexual motivation to the point of her locking herself in the bathroom refusing to come out; worse there was a witness to what Steve Wynn did who appears to have at no time suggested, supported this manager in reporting him to appropriate authorities, detailing the event to his board who had power to demand he either knock it off or step down. Not hiring a potential editor, the newspaper functional equivalent of managerial responsibilities who has a story swirling around them about punching holes in walls, who responds to reporter questions about the alleged incident with a semi joke asking did they need to bring their lawyer to the interview, while being interviewed for landing their new job; that was the man tapped to replace Jill Abramson at the New York Times. Bosses, executives, managers, CEO’s don’t need to be crazy, exhibiting mirroring behaviors to psychopaths literally, paralleling behaviors of the significantly mentally ill to be deemed adequately effective; in fact your company will predictably do far better if the boss you hire at any level isn’t imitating those from movies referenced in the introduction. Coinciding with what this author has long said about characteristics of good teachers, those who command respect versus demand it, those who inspire and motivate students to do their best, to want to please and impress them; much the same applies to bosses, those who lead not by barking like Mr. Spacely, being a tyrant and terror to work for, but by bringing the best out in workers, inspiring them to want to try, want to succeed and put their best foot forward— if you don’t have the foggiest clue how to do that, you don’t need to be a boss, manager. Revamping sensitivity training and sexual harassment seminars to enfold, similar to what the author suggested about college orientation after information regarding the Rutgers suicide of Tyler Clementi was revealed, interactive and role playing related to college life, common conflict on campus, in dorms, issues students face and struggle with; showcasing scenarios taken from current headlines featuring college kids, tragedies, legal trouble they got into mandatory to be viewed before obtaining dorm assignments, class schedules. 21st century interactive sexual harassment, sensitivity training information incorporated into orientation materials for new employees setting expectations, detailing rights along with yearly or as needed sexual harassment seminars, sensitivity training sessions encompassing common workplace trouble spots, confusing situations; said interactive and role playing features turning the tables on men to let them experience what it’s like to be catcalled for their appearance, groped and grabbed out of the blue, constantly asked to go out with someone you have repeatedly told you’re not interested in, your already involved in a relationship, are married. Equally what to do, how to handle the consensual; reinforcing what you gave them upon hire, a clear understanding of their rights in your workplace, you use those anti- harassment and sensitivity seminars to remind all employees of the procedures in place to protect them, names and contact numbers of HR personnel to reach out to if they are having a problem. You fix this at the very beginning trading so called personality questions, unusual interview questions about what parade theme you would chose if organizing one, what would the name of your debut album be, explain why manhole covers are round, redundant rehashes like what would your enemy say about you, time wasters like asking about passions (disappointed when they try to tie it back to the job), why should I hire you, knowing full well you will get scripted, practiced, ‘acceptable’ answers. Or literal wrong footed brain teasers positing would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses thought process tests, saving how many golf balls are in a school bus questions testing problem solving approach and its older twin how many basketballs can fit in this room, how does a hotdog split, how many cows are in Canada for jobs that really require a higher level of math, physics or specific thought processes. At least ‘Prove that hoop stress is twice the longitudinal stress in a cylindrical pressure vessel’ was for Space X and applicants probably weren’t being interviewed to answer phones or mop floors, totally applicable to an engineering firm designing space ships. Stop cups of water challenges to see if you throw away the cup after the interview supposedly giving insight into what kind of person you are/employee you will be, not that you were nervous and forgot, unsure what to do and afraid to ask thus left it there; trying to divine personality by having the interviewee chose a restaurant where the interview will take place or, intensely personal for some people asks, such as what you least like about your parents, purposefully trying to trip people up with ‘are you smart or do you work hard,’ where does your boss think you are right now.’ You ditch the snowflake tests attempting to make sure your millennial workers pass your subjective, nonsense work ethic muster exam consisting of questions asking how they feel about the police in the era of police brutality among others, disqualifying anyone who doesn’t answer the way you want them to. Stop impromptu integrity tests leaving money, intellectual property in magazines, laying around on tables to see what applicants do with them, sending people out to the parking lot to inspect the cleanliness of applicants cars (inside and out), making value judgements about what your lackey uncovers; if/when conducting interviews via webcam, Skype, Facetime, no matter how subconsciously temped, do not deduct points for unmade beds, crooked pictures and Victoria Secret posters or anything else you can see, unless on the rare occasion, it’s indicative of criminal behavior. In fact millennials, gen Z kids entering the workforce, anyone seeking a new job needs to boycott the bizarre, there’s no possible way this could be related to the job questions, be a driving wave to drive out the practice, concurrently cracking down on illegal questions about marital status, child status, criminal history questions including misdemeanors, birthdate, invasive questions about assistance such as welfare, food stamps, days missed from work on your current/previous job purportedly for the now obsolete earned income tax credit; walking out of interviews, refusing to fill out applications housing such items, a bold step we know, but somewhere it’s got to stop. Flowing directly from that you cease and desist disqualifying perfectly good people based on résumé/cover letter cosmetics and handshakes (or lack thereof); what do we mean by résumé cosmetics versus say content, throwing them in the trash for typos we all recognize as auto corrects from word processing software like Microsoft word, docking points, thinking less of applicants who use the day’s no, no-ed cliché words, phrases and descriptions, worth highlight changing every 5 minutes. ‘Non-considerable offenses’ such as including a photo, subjective thoughts on font choices and organization, objective, mission statements or buzz phrases describing the applicant you demand be included then get mad about where they put it, when we all know damn well résumés are crafted from a pre-fabricated template plugging in personal information in each one of the slots, you would question the time wasted if someone did create one from scratch with varied fronts and positioning of lettering boarders exc. Searching for petty reasons not to hire someone rather than solid reasons to hire the best of what you see, enter the handshake and the number one mistake millennials supposedly make, not offering one; mystifying why we should have to change ourselves, the people who have more years left in the workforce than out of it for people edging closer and closer to retirement rooted in factors that have nothing to do with can you do the job. You stop holding job interviews in odder and odder places unless it’s the actual worksite itself, having interviewees meet you at the gym, go mountain biking, one employer ran afoul of his own human resources department who said pleased stop holding interviews in the sauna lest applicants misinterpret what’s happening resulting in a lawsuit and legal liability. Really want to mind your employees’ health, the whole point of the above song and dance, give them sane working hours, reasonably manageable work duties, health insurance, paid sick leave, family leave, paternity/maternity leave and vacation days, institute work at home, working remotely, flex time options wherever and whenever possible. Replacing all those and so called behavior analysis questions usually starting with name a time you disagreed with your boss and how you handled it, with more active verb questions, how would you handle situation X, (it’s ok to throw 1 or 2 in there about sexual harassment) spending the lion’s share of your short interview time asking actual job scenario, job competency questions, keeping in mind their résumé, listed experiences. If the answers don’t seem to add up with that experience, ask more questions, press for details, maybe you read it wrong, maybe they weren’t clear about the limits of their experience or job duties, ask the question a different way. Job competency questions moguls of yesteryear Ailes, Murdoch, Trump, Wynn and all their ilk probably couldn’t answer moving past the surface of their business records, the cons and bad business practices Trump was known for before he rolled the dice in politics and convinced voters he was a win, so that you get the best people available working at your company. Because the best people are not serial sexual harassers, borderline or outright sexual predators, repeated rapists, those with rampant sexual impulses they can’t control; people who do their work well, enjoy their job and have a passion for it don’t have time to spend every moment hitting on subordinates and office staff, pursuing a co-worker whose already said no thank you a number of times. Hiring people based on the best of those answers, with a little emphasis on overall demeanor, personality yes, but it can’t be the ballgame; hiring based on what they had to tell you, what they can give to you not who they’re related to, whose kid they are, whose name they can drop, whom you can call to get the ‘low down’ AKA effusive praise about them from. Not hiring the latter group because you have no idea how to attract the workers you need/want, you don’t want to put in the work towards the daunting task of finding additional workers to accommodate growth, replace someone who was bad at their job or just didn’t work out. Part of getting the best people goes back even further to the foundation starts of your business and mandatory classes that need to be in every city and state, fees for which folded into the existing price for permits, licensing and so on. Classes for business owner wannabes new to the city, county, state giving them a lay of the land, one on one consultations noting their business site, talking about their competition, surrounding area businesses, cultural nuances so they can draft plans based on those factors. More generally that teach business owners, based on the type of business they’re beginning, things like, going back up to the chef in paragraph 4, visual examples representing a functional kitchen space commiserate with how many meals you serve, menu items cooked, patrons served, how many employees they need based on both kind and size of business, what a reasonable, doable job description looks like. So you aren’t overstressing and overworking good employees, asking good employees to put up with, do their best in deplorable or dysfunctional conditions going well beyond tight, tiny kitchens; helping them drill down to what they sincerely need from applicants in each position to avoid Christmas tree and kitchen sink want ads. Teaches them how to write an effective, inexpensive ad and where to put the bulk of their efforts based on the age and demographic of worker they want, type of job offered, company you run, communicate effectively to recruiters what skills are a must and which ones are an optional plus. How to screen the application materials they get cautioning against using the automated, key word sensitive ones, encouraging actual reading of résumés before setting up interviews; illegal questions by both state and federal law to ask in those interviews, to never put on an application form. Extensive run downs of mandatory by law things you must give new employees upon hire including things you should definitively give workers upon hire, any applicable door passes, set up on the company e-mail circuits, tutorials on critical paperwork they will be expected to complete, security policies, to ensure their success with you and minimal mistakes. Warnings about the dangers in businesses today of abdicating job training like so many in operation currently, the reality check, past specific professions doctor, lawyer things that require extensive licensure, no it’s not pre-k’s, k-12’s, community colleges, 4 year universities, tech school’s responsibility it’s yours; their having gotten an engineering degree, social work degree is where college leaves off and you take over, particularly the more specialized the skills you need in machinist operations and engineering, manual labor. No there isn’t the skills gap everyone claims there is nor is solving work shortages about the lopsidedness of American work, work attitudes ‘making work cool again’ to quote Mike Rowe; it’s what this commenter said, “Companies need to go back to training their own workforce. They expect people to come fully trained and qualified or they expect the government to pay for the training of their employees. Next thing you know you will have to train yourself to work the fry station at McDonald’s BEFORE you can even apply for that job. Some retail chains already require minimum wage workers to complete a retail sales course before they even accept their application and they call this a skill shortage. Enough with the drug testing as well, so many people are disqualified from many of these jobs even with prescription medications and doctors notes. [Sic.] Speaking of drug tests, staggering numbers of employers are misusing and misinterpreting the information What can be done to curb and someday, sooner than later, eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace, you start by silencing people like Mika Brzezinski showcasing newfangled, millennial workplaces that do have perks and still don’t have widespread, pervasive harassment. For traditional workplaces, agreed hiring more women for key leadership positions where this ‘toxic masculinity’ culture never develops, agreed having competent HR departments who know how to effectively handle sexual harassment, Gretchen Carlson talked about this when her legal battle with Fox News made headlines; that HR departments really possess no idea how to do any of this remotely effectively or correctly. Have a process in place to ensure women’s safety and anonymity coming forward, but also a process by which to give the accused due process, protected rights within the company, solid investigation to determine validity of the claims against them and appropriate actions taken only according to what can be proven. Instead of what happened in the Monster Energy case where HR’s response was to confront the accused boss complete with details allowing him to know precisely who made the complaint and the things the woman complainant alleged became fodder for the office rumor mill/gossip train. Oddity of all oddities, having an HR department at all even with numerous employees; one of the things propelling the serial nature of Charlie Rose’s actions was having none. Seriously it should be part of obtaining a business license, prove you have a workable outline for an HR department that does more than hand out computer access, company e-mail set up, door passes, field ADA accommodations requests, insurance, 401k headaches, applications for maternity or family leave where applicable, but has procedures in place for dealing with employee conflict including sexual harassment. Employee numbers at or above 25 workers and it must be a clear defined department staffed with workers who specialize in handling employee conflicts and sexual harassment claims; 5-15 and up to the 20-24 workers range a designated HR person and discrete support personnel a-la receptionists, secretaries, file clerks, 1-5 workers a clear process of who to go to and actions for managers, owners, bosses receiving complaints to take including across all spectrums when to call the police, turn it over to them to investigate. You fix this by doing your level best to make sure it never starts, not using non-disclosure agreements to settle things related to sexual harassment, existing businesses ending the use of non-disclosure agreements as a means to silence women about whatever horrifying thing they went through on the job in exchange for money, absolutely do not build fines for inappropriate sexual behavior into male or female contracts a-la Harvey Weinstein; #metoo’s next move would do well in petitioning congress to end legality of contracts like the one he was under. You prevent your employees from doing what Bill O’Reilly did, paying settlements out of pocket to keep women quiet and his employer oblivious; as well as never paying out a sexual harassment settlement being an employer while still keeping the offending employee on. If there was ever a time for the use of morals clauses and otherwise asinine policies firing workers for smoking in their own home, a teacher participating in a bikini contest, nursing home worker having a rock band in his own time, policy that saw a lifeguard fired for noting a drowning man then saving his life, because he was out of his section; instead of using it for benign, stupid stuff, use it to protect not only workers from varying forms of devastating sexual abuse on the clock but your company, your brand, your business from such devastating reputation stealers. But let’s rewind all the way back to not hiring predators, promoting predators in the first place, not hiring persons with these rumored reputations sure, moreover, not hiring the guy who was seen chasing a manager around the office, assumedly with a sexual motivation to the point of her locking herself in the bathroom refusing to come out; worse there was a witness to what Steve Wynn did who appears to have at no time suggested, supported this manager in reporting him to appropriate authorities, detailing the event to his board who had power to demand he either knock it off or step down. Not hiring a potential editor, the newspaper functional equivalent of managerial responsibilities who has a story swirling around them about punching holes in walls, who responds to reporter questions about the alleged incident with a semi joke asking did they need to bring their lawyer to the interview, while being interviewed for landing their new job; that was the man tapped to replace Jill Abramson at the New York Times. Bosses, executives, managers, CEO’s don’t need to be crazy, exhibiting mirroring behaviors to psychopaths literally, paralleling behaviors of the significantly mentally ill to be deemed adequately effective; in fact your company will predictably do far better if the boss you hire at any level isn’t imitating those from movies referenced in the introduction. Coinciding with what this author has long said about characteristics of good teachers, those who command respect versus demand it, those who inspire and motivate students to do their best, to want to please and impress them; much the same applies to bosses, those who lead not by barking like Mr. Spacely, being a tyrant and terror to work for, but by bringing the best out in workers, inspiring them to want to try, want to succeed and put their best foot forward— if you don’t have the foggiest clue how to do that, you don’t need to be a boss, manager. Revamping sensitivity training and sexual harassment seminars to enfold, similar to what the author suggested about college orientation after information regarding the Rutgers suicide of Tyler Clementi was revealed, interactive and role playing related to college life, common conflict on campus, in dorms, issues students face and struggle with; showcasing scenarios taken from current headlines featuring college kids, tragedies, legal trouble they got into mandatory to be viewed before obtaining dorm assignments, class schedules. 21st century interactive sexual harassment, sensitivity training information incorporated into orientation materials for new employees setting expectations, detailing rights along with yearly or as needed sexual harassment seminars, sensitivity training sessions encompassing common workplace trouble spots, confusing situations; said interactive and role playing features turning the tables on men to let them experience what it’s like to be catcalled for their appearance, groped and grabbed out of the blue, constantly asked to go out with someone you have repeatedly told you’re not interested in, your already involved in a relationship, are married. Equally what to do, how to handle the consensual; reinforcing what you gave them upon hire, a clear understanding of their rights in your workplace, you use those anti- harassment and sensitivity seminars to remind all employees of the procedures in place to protect them, names and contact numbers of HR personnel to reach out to if they are having a problem. You fix this at the very beginning trading so called personality questions, unusual interview questions about what parade theme you would chose if organizing one, what would the name of your debut album be, explain why manhole covers are round, redundant rehashes like what would your enemy say about you, time wasters like asking about passions (disappointed when they try to tie it back to the job), why should I hire you, knowing full well you will get scripted, practiced, ‘acceptable’ answers. Or literal wrong footed brain teasers positing would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses thought process tests, saving how many golf balls are in a school bus questions testing problem solving approach and its older twin how many basketballs can fit in this room, how does a hotdog split, how many cows are in Canada for jobs that really require a higher level of math, physics or specific thought processes. At least ‘Prove that hoop stress is twice the longitudinal stress in a cylindrical pressure vessel’ was for Space X and applicants probably weren’t being interviewed to answer phones or mop floors, totally applicable to an engineering firm designing space ships. Stop cups of water challenges to see if you throw away the cup after the interview supposedly giving insight into what kind of person you are/employee you will be, not that you were nervous and forgot, unsure what to do and afraid to ask thus left it there; trying to divine personality by having the interviewee chose a restaurant where the interview will take place or, intensely personal for some people asks, such as what you least like about your parents, purposefully trying to trip people up with ‘are you smart or do you work hard,’ where does your boss think you are right now.’ You ditch the snowflake tests attempting to make sure your millennial workers pass your subjective, nonsense work ethic muster exam consisting of questions asking how they feel about the police in the era of police brutality among others, disqualifying anyone who doesn’t answer the way you want them to. Stop impromptu integrity tests leaving money, intellectual property in magazines, laying around on tables to see what applicants do with them, sending people out to the parking lot to inspect the cleanliness of applicants cars (inside and out), making value judgements about what your lackey uncovers; if/when conducting interviews via webcam, Skype, Facetime, no matter how subconsciously temped, do not deduct points for unmade beds, crooked pictures and Victoria Secret posters or anything else you can see, unless on the rare occasion, it’s indicative of criminal behavior. In fact millennials, gen Z kids entering the workforce, anyone seeking a new job needs to boycott the bizarre, there’s no possible way this could be related to the job questions, be a driving wave to drive out the practice, concurrently cracking down on illegal questions about marital status, child status, criminal history questions including misdemeanors, birthdate, invasive questions about assistance such as welfare, food stamps, days missed from work on your current/previous job purportedly for the now obsolete earned income tax credit; walking out of interviews, refusing to fill out applications housing such items, a bold step we know, but somewhere it’s got to stop. Flowing directly from that you cease and desist disqualifying perfectly good people based on résumé/cover letter cosmetics and handshakes (or lack thereof); what do we mean by résumé cosmetics versus say content, throwing them in the trash for typos we all recognize as auto corrects from word processing software like Microsoft word, docking points, thinking less of applicants who use the day’s no, no-ed cliché words, phrases and descriptions, worth highlight changing every 5 minutes. ‘Non-considerable offenses’ such as including a photo, subjective thoughts on font choices and organization, objective, mission statements or buzz phrases describing the applicant you demand be included then get mad about where they put it, when we all know damn well résumés are crafted from a pre-fabricated template plugging in personal information in each one of the slots, you would question the time wasted if someone did create one from scratch with varied fronts and positioning of lettering boarders exc. Searching for petty reasons not to hire someone rather than solid reasons to hire the best of what you see, enter the handshake and the number one mistake millennials supposedly make, not offering one; mystifying why we should have to change ourselves, the people who have more years left in the workforce than out of it for people edging closer and closer to retirement rooted in factors that have nothing to do with can you do the job. You stop holding job interviews in odder and odder places unless it’s the actual worksite itself, having interviewees meet you at the gym, go mountain biking, one employer ran afoul of his own human resources department who said pleased stop holding interviews in the sauna lest applicants misinterpret what’s happening resulting in a lawsuit and legal liability. Really want to mind your employees’ health, the whole point of the above song and dance, give them sane working hours, reasonably manageable work duties, health insurance, paid sick leave, family leave, paternity/maternity leave and vacation days, institute work at home, working remotely, flex time options wherever and whenever possible. Replacing all those and so called behavior analysis questions usually starting with name a time you disagreed with your boss and how you handled it, with more active verb questions, how would you handle situation X, (it’s ok to throw 1 or 2 in there about sexual harassment) spending the lion’s share of your short interview time asking actual job scenario, job competency questions, keeping in mind their résumé, listed experiences. If the answers don’t seem to add up with that experience, ask more questions, press for details, maybe you read it wrong, maybe they weren’t clear about the limits of their experience or job duties, ask the question a different way. Job competency questions moguls of yesteryear Ailes, Murdoch, Trump, Wynn and all their ilk probably couldn’t answer moving past the surface of their business records, the cons and bad business practices Trump was known for before he rolled the dice in politics and convinced voters he was a win, so that you get the best people available working at your company. Because the best people are not serial sexual harassers, borderline or outright sexual predators, repeated rapists, those with rampant sexual impulses they can’t control; people who do their work well, enjoy their job and have a passion for it don’t have time to spend every moment hitting on subordinates and office staff, pursuing a co-worker whose already said no thank you a number of times. Hiring people based on the best of those answers, with a little emphasis on overall demeanor, personality yes, but it can’t be the ballgame; hiring based on what they had to tell you, what they can give to you not who they’re related to, whose kid they are, whose name they can drop, whom you can call to get the ‘low down’ AKA effusive praise about them from. Not hiring the latter group because you have no idea how to attract the workers you need/want, you don’t want to put in the work towards the daunting task of finding additional workers to accommodate growth, replace someone who was bad at their job or just didn’t work out. Part of getting the best people goes back even further to the foundation starts of your business and mandatory classes that need to be in every city and state, fees for which folded into the existing price for permits, licensing and so on. Classes for business owner wannabes new to the city, county, state giving them a lay of the land, one on one consultations noting their business site, talking about their competition, surrounding area businesses, cultural nuances so they can draft plans based on those factors. More generally that teach business owners, based on the type of business they’re beginning, things like, going back up to the chef in paragraph 4, visual examples representing a functional kitchen space commiserate with how many meals you serve, menu items cooked, patrons served, how many employees they need based on both kind and size of business, what a reasonable, doable job description looks like. So you aren’t overstressing and overworking good employees, asking good employees to put up with, do their best in deplorable or dysfunctional conditions going well beyond tight, tiny kitchens; helping them drill down to what they sincerely need from applicants in each position to avoid Christmas tree and kitchen sink want ads. Teaches them how to write an effective, inexpensive ad and where to put the bulk of their efforts based on the age and demographic of worker they want, type of job offered, company you run, communicate effectively to recruiters what skills are a must and which ones are an optional plus. How to screen the application materials they get cautioning against using the automated, key word sensitive ones, encouraging actual reading of résumés before setting up interviews; illegal questions by both state and federal law to ask in those interviews, to never put on an application form. Extensive run downs of mandatory by law things you must give new employees upon hire including things you should definitively give workers upon hire, any applicable door passes, set up on the company e-mail circuits, tutorials on critical paperwork they will be expected to complete, security policies, to ensure their success with you and minimal mistakes. Warnings about the dangers in businesses today of abdicating job training like so many in operation currently, the reality check, past specific professions doctor, lawyer things that require extensive licensure, no it’s not pre-k’s, k-12’s, community colleges, 4 year universities, tech school’s responsibility it’s yours; their having gotten an engineering degree, social work degree is where college leaves off and you take over, particularly the more specialized the skills you need in machinist operations and engineering, manual labor. No there isn’t the skills gap everyone claims there is nor is solving work shortages about the lopsidedness of American work, work attitudes ‘making work cool again’ to quote Mike Rowe; it’s what this commenter said, “Companies need to go back to training their own workforce. They expect people to come fully trained and qualified or they expect the government to pay for the training of their employees. Next thing you know you will have to train yourself to work the fry station at McDonald’s BEFORE you can even apply for that job. Some retail chains already require minimum wage workers to complete a retail sales course before they even accept their application and they call this a skill shortage. Enough with the drug testing as well, so many people are disqualified from many of these jobs even with prescription medications and doctors notes. [Sic.] Speaking of drug tests, staggering numbers of employers are misusing and misinterpreting the information said tests give them, people who pop positive for more than video mentioned opioids but are on prescription, doesn’t get you high medication, some blood pressure pill, psychiatric, ADHD treatments are controlled substances, marijuana has been legalized in varying capacities across the majority of states as a YouTube commenter on that final video highlighted yet we can here the incredulity of Americans horrified employers are stopping drug tests, working around people’s ‘addictions,’ whatever they’re on. Ultimately stopping sexual harassment is about raising the caliber of worker you will accept; changing your perceptions from the superficial to the substantive about what is deemed acceptable to you.

interviews, refusing to fill out applications housing such items, a bold step we know, but somewhere it’s got to stop. Flowing directly from that you cease and desist disqualifying perfectly good people based on résumé/cover letter cosmetics and handshakes (or lack thereof); what do we mean by résumé cosmetics versus say content, throwing them in the trash for typos we all recognize as auto corrects from word processing software like Microsoft word, docking points, thinking less of applicants who use the day’s no, no-ed cliché words, phrases and descriptions, worth highlight changing every 5 minutes. ‘Non-considerable offenses’ such as including a photo, subjective thoughts on font choices and organization, objective, mission statements or buzz phrases describing the applicant you demand be included then get mad about where they put it, when we all know damn well résumés are crafted from a pre-fabricated template plugging in personal information in each one of the slots, you would question the time wasted if someone did create one from scratch with varied fronts and positioning of lettering boarders exc. Searching for petty reasons not to hire someone rather than solid reasons to hire the best of what you see, enter the handshake and the number one mistake millennials supposedly make, not offering one; mystifying why we should have to change ourselves, the people who have more years left in the workforce than out of it for people edging closer and closer to retirement rooted in factors that have nothing to do with can you do the job. You stop holding job interviews in odder and odder places unless it’s the actual worksite itself, having interviewees meet you at the gym, go mountain biking, one employer ran afoul of his own human resources department who said pleased stop holding interviews in the sauna lest applicants misinterpret what’s happening resulting in a lawsuit and legal liability. Really want to mind your employees’ health, the whole point of the above song and dance, give them sane working hours, reasonably manageable work duties, health insurance, paid sick leave, family leave, paternity/maternity leave and vacation days, institute work at home, working remotely, flex time options wherever and whenever possible. Replacing all those and so called behavior analysis questions usually starting with name a time you disagreed with your boss and how you handled it, with more active verb questions, how would you handle situation X, (it’s ok to throw 1 or 2 in there about sexual harassment) spending the lion’s share of your short interview time asking actual job scenario, job competency questions, keeping in mind their résumé, listed experiences. If the answers don’t seem to add up with that experience, ask more questions, press for details, maybe you read it wrong, maybe they weren’t clear about the limits of their experience or job duties, ask the question a different way. Job competency questions moguls of yesteryear Ailes, Murdoch, Trump, Wynn and all their ilk probably couldn’t answer moving past the surface of their business records, the cons and bad business practices Trump was known for before he rolled the dice in politics and convinced voters he was a win, so that you get the best people available working at your company. Because the best people are not serial sexual harassers, borderline or outright sexual predators, repeated rapists, those with rampant sexual impulses they can’t control; people who do their work well, enjoy their job and have a passion for it don’t have time to spend every moment hitting on subordinates and office staff, pursuing a co-worker whose already said no thank you a number of times. Hiring people based on the best of those answers, with a little emphasis on overall demeanor, personality yes, but it can’t be the ballgame; hiring based on what they had to tell you, what they can give to you not who they’re related to, whose kid they are, whose name they can drop, whom you can call to get the ‘low down’ AKA effusive praise about them from. Not hiring the latter group because you have no idea how to attract the workers you need/want, you don’t want to put in the work towards the daunting task of finding additional workers to accommodate growth, replace someone who was bad at their job or just didn’t work out. Part of getting the best people goes back even further to the foundation starts of your business and mandatory classes that need to be in every city and state, fees for which folded into the existing price for permits, licensing and so on. Classes for business owner wannabes new to the city, county, state giving them a lay of the land, one on one consultations noting their business site, talking about their competition, surrounding area businesses, cultural nuances so they can draft plans based on those factors. More generally that teach business owners, based on the type of business they’re beginning, things like, going back up to the chef in paragraph 4, visual examples representing a functional kitchen space commiserate with how many meals you serve, menu items cooked, patrons served, how many employees they need based on both kind and size of business, what a reasonable, doable job description looks like. So you aren’t overstressing and overworking good employees, asking good employees to put up with, do their best in deplorable or dysfunctional conditions going well beyond tight, tiny kitchens; helping them drill down to what they sincerely need from applicants in each position to avoid Christmas tree and kitchen sink want ads. Teaches them how to write an effective, inexpensive ad and where to put the bulk of their efforts based on the age and demographic of worker they want, type of job offered, company you run, communicate effectively to recruiters what skills are a must and which ones are an optional plus. How to screen the application materials they get cautioning against using the automated, key word sensitive ones, encouraging actual reading of résumés before setting up interviews; illegal questions by both state and federal law to ask in those interviews, to never put on an application form. Extensive run downs of mandatory by law things you must give new employees upon hire including things you should definitively give workers upon hire, any applicable door passes, set up on the company e-mail circuits, tutorials on critical paperwork they will be expected to complete, security policies, to ensure their success with you and minimal mistakes. Warnings about the dangers in businesses today of abdicating job training like so many in operation currently, the reality check, past specific professions doctor, lawyer things that require extensive licensure, no it’s not pre-k’s, k-12’s, community colleges, 4 year universities, tech school’s responsibility it’s yours; their having gotten an engineering degree, social work degree is where college leaves off and you take over, particularly the more specialized the skills you need in machinist operations and engineering, manual labor. No there isn’t the skills gap everyone claims there is nor is solving work shortages about the lopsidedness of American work, work attitudes ‘making work cool again’ to quote Mike Rowe; it’s what this commenter said, “Companies need to go back to training their own workforce. They expect people to come fully trained and qualified or they expect the government to pay for the training of their employees. Next thing you know you will have to train yourself to work the fry station at McDonald’s BEFORE you can even apply for that job. Some retail chains already require minimum wage workers to complete a retail sales course before they even accept their application and they call this a skill shortage. Enough with the drug testing as well, so many people are disqualified from many of these jobs even with prescription medications and doctors notes. [Sic.] Speaking of drug tests, staggering numbers of employers are misusing and misinterpreting the information said tests give them, people who pop positive for more than video mentioned opioids but are on prescription, doesn’t get you high medication, some blood pressure pill, psychiatric, ADHD treatments are controlled substances, marijuana has been legalized in varying capacities across the majority of states as a YouTube commenter on that final video highlighted yet we can here the incredulity of Americans horrified employers are stopping drug tests, working around people’s ‘addictions,’ whatever they’re on. Ultimately stopping sexual harassment is about raising the caliber of worker you will accept; changing your perceptions from the superficial to the substantive about what is deemed acceptable to you.

Heavy metallers Brazilians HIGH MOONLIGHT give us quite the detail of their coming together, musical style of approach, new music that is in the works, with a lot whole more. 1. Please tell us about …Read More